Sonder

A billion different souls with different stories.

Sonder is my favourite word.

It describes the quiet realization that every person you pass has a life just as complex and vivid as your own - their own ambitions, worries, routines, relationships, and memories unfolding in parallel to yours.

Most of the time we move through the world at the center of our own story. Our schedules, our problems, our goals feel like the main plot. Everyone else becomes background characters: the person sitting across from you on the train, the cashier at the grocery store, the neighbour you pass on the sidewalk.

But every once in a while, something shifts. You look around and remember that each of those people is living an entire life you know nothing about.

I often think about this when walking through the city at night.

Apartment buildings glow with hundreds of small squares of light. Behind each window is a completely different story unfolding - someone cooking dinner, someone studying for an exam, someone having a difficult conversation, someone celebrating something small that mattered only to them.

From the outside, all you see are lights.

Inside, entire worlds exist.

Everyone is carrying a story.

And most of the time, we only see the surface.

Sonder is a small reminder to pause and remember that the world is much larger than our own perspective. That every stranger is the main character in a story we’ll never fully understand.

It’s a humbling thought, but also a beautiful one. Because it means the world is far more interesting than it appears at first glance.