Together, Briefly

The concept of sonder, this clicked to me while I was sitting on the plane as I walked up to go to the restroom. I passed rows of people, each person watching something entirely their own. Someone was watching a horror movie. Someone else laughed quietly at a comedy. Others had their screens turned off completely. A mom sat beside her kid, both focused on a cartoon. An older man watching some 80s show. Some people were half asleep, others stared out the window.

Then I started paying attention to the small things, the things most people would overlook.

A couple was sitting next to each other, but instead of watching the same movie on the same screen, they somehow had it timed to watch it perfectly in sync on separate screens. I like to imagine they were counting down the seconds, wanting to share the experience without having to share the screen. Standing in the middle of that aisle, I thought about how every single individual on that plane had a completely different life. Different routines, different memories, different worries, different joys, different struggles that no one would get to see. We were all on exactly one plane going to the same place, but we were on completely different journeys.

One person on that flight might be experiencing heartbreak and still has a heavy and empty feeling in their chest. Another is on their way to meet the love of their life and excited to spend the holiday with them. Another person is moving to start over and leaving an old version of themselves behind, and another is going home to see their family and is counting down the minutes. And yet, we still compare ourselves and feel behind in our own stories, while nearly eight billion people in this world carry unique, unshared dreams and stories, all waiting for their own moment to be exactly where we want to be.

How strange it is to be anything at all.