SONDER: By Maryam Alhassan

      I wonder if the tides rise and fall in every other person as hardly as they do in me. In my moment of euphoria, when I'm close to touching the ceiling and my existence is nothing if not perfection.. Or in those moments when dejected, just crawling, picking on crumbs, trying to get that high back again..
         With this curious little thought I've found that I've learned to judge people a little less harshly... I don't think we fully realize how "human" the next person really is. We rationalize our own shortcomings but  expect others to be perfect. We don't know each other's complete stories, or others trials but we dismiss them as unworthy.
         Being a complete person and balancing out life on itself is a challenge. So big a challenge that I don't understand why we try to make it that more difficult for each other by judging, like they have it any easier than us.

         Imagine how it feels when you're hopeful about something and you've planned on how to achieve your goal. Now imagine watching that product of your dreams slipping or someone threatening to take it away.. It's incredible where you'll find yourself, and the things you'll do to get back on that high. These will include things you've seen others do and turned your nose up at, because you weren't in their shoes then.
• I understand it's not so easy being stronger than the will of your heart and choosing to do the right thing..
• I understand no matter how much justification you think you deserve to give for your shortcomings, someone out there deserves more.. Someone else's story is grimmer than yours..

           I don't think we realize how much we are tested on the daily ..the prayers answered, the hurdles jumped are as much a test in themselves as the apparent trials..
           Everyone speaks of living and learning through your mistakes and experiences and coming out on the other side, stronger and wiser. However, I'm surprised I've never heard of someone mention how easily those lessons can be forgotten. No one talks about the way the same winds from the past can come and swoop you away; how so easily those past trials can change form, hiding behind new masks. How they can take you again unawares, until you are flat on your face again, your lessons unlearned ..back to square one.
          I'm here thinking that even at the time you come out victorious, write your life's lessons somewhere permanent. Put in it in a glass jar, stash it somewhere in full display so it serves as a reminder. Don't do away with your scars, they are a souvenir from where you were and how you've been able to escape.. They are you, they are your story..
            One of the worst ways to live is to live and learn and forget it all.. With everything now, I feel like I want to celebrate every human being for just being human, my reason being that each of us is miraculous in our own right, intriguing and incredible.

Capital City Magazine