Photo by Melissa Houston
My favorite place has always been the airport. At 3 years old, I remember walking through busy corridors filled with hundreds of souls trying to reach their destinations. Airports fascinated me. You see people from every walk of life — some excited, some exhausted, some nervous — yet all with a purpose to land somewhere important to them.
I recall seeing people sleeping on cold floors, rushing through terminals with suitcases in hand and standing in long lines for food. Beneath my quick observations, time seemed to slow down for strangers as they had meaningful, quiet conversations. A little girl with a vivid imagination and an excessive number of questions was somewhere in the middle of it all, constantly wondering about strangers’ daily lives.
That little girl’s curiosity was only heightened by growing up in several cities and countries. She started to see how everyone, even for a short time, impacts your life in some way. In life, an average person will get to meet thousands of people, and none will carry the same story. Perhaps life’s intricacy is what makes it so beautiful.
In another person’s world, you are merely a passing stranger, a classmate, a coworker or someone who is only ever remembered once. The uncertainty of connecting with one another is, in my opinion, the beauty of being human.
Our identities are shaped by the experiences people have together — the stories we read, the media we watch and the roles we fulfill on a daily basis. Humans are a spectacular mosaic of shared interests, borrowed colors and carefully aligned moments.
I’ve always believed we meet people for a reason — whether they change us forever or only for a single moment. This idea is known as Sonder: the realization that every individual lives a life as vivid and complex as your own. Understanding this brings with it a certain knowledge — it increases your awareness, empathy and humanity.
If you’ve never felt it, pause for a moment. Take a deep breath. Look up from whatever you are doing. Notice your surroundings — the people moving, the pace of their steps, their facial expressions, the sky above you, the conversations happening around you. Countless narratives are unfolding at once.
The purpose of this Special Edition is to help you, the reader, see the world and the lives that are taking place in it. I encourage you to read the stories and see aspects of yourself mirrored within these pages, whether it is an instant connection through language, aesthetic, food, personality, family, art, celebrations and more.
We are all interlinked. So, feel intensely. Open up to others. Vive mucho y ama hasta que el corazón arda. And keep in mind, everyone is as alive as you are.
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Contact Soliel Lara Aponte via email: soliel.lara@pepperdine.edu or via Instagram @soliellarajournalism