Sonder: Everyone Has a Story They’re the Main Character Of

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‘Love, Lies & Lab Coats: Volume 1’ by Dee Bostic. Immerse yourself in a world filled with intrigue.

When encountering a stranger, what does one think about? Everyone has a story to live, but people are so in their heads about theirs that they don’t fathom the others.

Eight billion people experience life differently every day.

This sentiment puts into perspective life’s complexity, highlighting the diversity of the lives traversing the present. Not only does this help paint the bigger picture of how interconnected people are. But it also eases people’s worries about their lives, realizing that others also have it tough, as they’re experiencing relatively similar conditions.

Everyone has a story of their own. This may seem like a straightforward notion that people should have all figured out. But it’s so ordinary and prevailing that it doesn’t merit an active thought.

Everyone Is the Main Character in Their Unique Stories

Sonder is a term coined to capture this ideology. It describes the condition that every random passerby has a life as complex and vivid as one’s own. It opens up the idea that everyone has an unfolding story, a separate yet equally compounded life they must navigate.

This idea posits that one may never truly understand or claim to know another’s story. Their experiences are separate, and what another experiences will never be one’s own. Sonder may disconnect everyone from each other as it provides each with a sense of uniqueness. But, in a way, it also unites them, providing them with a connection that, while primarily dividing them, also makes them equal.

Sonder, or the thought that everyone lives similarly complex lives, is quite comforting.

It radiates the scheme that nobody is alone in life. While it may be that nobody is going through similar paths, everyone is treading towards similar directions or on relative grounds. Everyone is the main character. People may not be aware of what others are experiencing. But the realization that everyone has a story they’re navigating, this perspective-taking gives everyone peace with their struggles.

Everyone Has a Story Others Should be Considerate of

Love, Lies & Lab Coats

is a story encompassing the essence of sonder. It follows multiple characters’ lives as they overlap, forming lasting bonds that ripple through their experiences. Although having diverse backgrounds, they tackle relative everyday issues that converge their lives together.

The story spotlights the disparate lives people maneuver around.

While people may meet each other momentarily, bumping into each other on the street, their state during that moment doesn’t encompass half of what they’re going through. Most of whom people encounter may be a crowd of nameless and blurred faces. But those, even in the background, have a story as complex as the one individuals are living in.

What does the realization that everyone has a story contribute to life?

Humans as they are, people thrive to survive. They go through their routines with the desire to end the day right and accomplish what they’re meant to. Hence, they pay little to no attention to what surrounds them so long as they don’t influence their situation.

People tend to ignore how complex other’s lives are because they’re too busy juggling their own. While they know life happens similarly to everyone, they may often fail to consider this detail.

Sonder Calls for People’s Sensitivity

If only people took this realization and applied it in every interaction they had, there would be fewer complications and conflict in the world. With Sonder and its notion that everyone has a story, people who interact with each other should honor the humanity within each other.

They should contemplate their behaviors and consider if these individuals are also carrying the same burdens they have or going through struggles like them. If this had been the case, there would’ve possibly been less violence, arguments, or abuse happening in the world. What people lack is sensitivity to put themselves in other’s shoes. While it can be seen as expected, given they also have their problems on their plates, this shouldn’t mean interactions that fall short of consideration should be normalized.

If Sonder spotlights that everyone has a story filled with dreams, hopes, and love, this should encourage people to understand each other more. It should allow them to put in the same amount of respect for themselves as others.

The concept of sonder humanizes everyone.

It’s meant to relay that regardless of whether people know each other, it pays to be respectful and considerate of one another. Because everyone has a story, people should be conscientious of how they influence how it unfolds. While a single interaction may not be consequential enough to change the course of one’s life, it can still weigh how one’s days and decisions are made.

Sonder encourages everyone to put themselves in others’ shoes. They should practice compassion and empathy in every interaction.