WORDS // sonder

sonder (n.) - the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

I usually get this feeling at airports. When everyone's in a rush, catching flights, going to their loved ones, leaving their loved ones. Going away to make new memories, leaving behind the old ones. What's the story of that girl sitting by the window? What's her name? What's she going through? What makes her feel alive? Or that man, waiting for his coffee. Is he returning home to his wife? Or is he going home to an empty apartment? What if the person I see sitting in seat 38 A could have been my closest friend if the circumstances were different and I could have meet them? To me, it’s incredible. That we are all wrapped in countless stories and that there's so much more to us than what we let passersby see. If you think about it, how many strangers have taken photos with you in the background? When you are crossing a busy road, cycling by or talking on the phone. How many strangers appear in your photos? And you’ll never know their triumphs, failures, what makes them smile.

What do you think about the word sonder? Do you ever think about other people’s stories?