I don’t know about you, but recently I starting grasping ahold of the fact that people will hide what scares them most. It can range from their deepest and darkest secret of what has happened at home, work, school, etc., to a small phobia they choose to not share out of embarrassment. To me, that is sad. It’s sad because people walk around and carry this weight but have a face that counteracts it. Sure, everyone wants to act tough when their world is falling apart..but there should be people who identify it, and act on it. It could determine so much for an individual. Have you ever seen a person who isn’t in a great state of being and decided it isn’t your problem to solve? I have before. Now looking back I’m like “Wow, what if I would’ve taken the chance to compliment them when I was next to them in that class” or “Wow, what if I took those extra few seconds to ask them how they were in the hallway?”and it’s like we think these things, but don’t actually do them. It turns into a list of what I should’ve done instead of what I did do. And it should never be like that. Because if it were you or I in the midst of a hard time, I’m sure we would want someone to ask us. Wouldn’t you?
Walking around campus and any public area, when there’s sadness in the air, you can sense it, it’s almost like an unavoidable sound. That’s when choosing to just let it be almost feels wrong. It’s one thing to understand that we can’t save every person’s world, but we can at least try and attempt to.
If it takes a simple compliment to make a girl who was just told she’s a lowlife feel even the tiniest amount of uplifted, then it’s well worth those 6 words to come out of my mouth. If it takes getting down on your hands and knees to help pick up of someone’s spilled coffee in front of a crowd of people to just save them from that last straw of embarrassment, then we should be more than willing to do that for them. You don’t have to be someone’s personal therapist to make a difference in their life, just be a person who’s not completely consumed with yourself that you are blinded to the needs of other people. We must always be attentive to people, even in the times where the easier and more comfortable option is right there next to us and our flesh wants to be selfish and unresponsive to it. Believe it or not, the blessing always comes back to you; in one way or another when you extend yourself to someone else. It serves to not just benefit them, but you as well.
So, this Fall, challenge yourself and make it a point to have your eyes not just open, but wide open to how the people around you carry themselves. When you start observing people more than merely passing them by, you’ll realize you have opportunities to go beyond the average “someone else will do it” mindset. Be the person you needed when you were stuck in a helpless wave of your life. Because I promise you will feel ten times better speaking words of affirmation to someone who’s desperately bleeding from the inside out, than just neglecting and turning your face in fear or ignorance that they are, or will eventually be “alright.”
We all have a buoy to throw to someone who needs it, use yours to help someone else stay afloat.
Xoxo,
Bri
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