I understand most of the people whom I am close to in my life. I know them well enough to be able to interpret the things that they do or say and why they do or say them. I understand who they are and the way they work and I can adapt accordingly. This knowledge is not necessarily boring per say, but it is not fascinating either. Most of these people are simple enough to explain with a few sentences and I can discern almost exactly who they are without difficulty.
But there are some people in this world that, if you are lucky enough to stumble across, will enchant you. They will be so incredibly different from anyone you have ever known and they will stimulate conversation that you never realized you could be a part of. They will say things and ask you questions that will guide you through the depths of your mind that you did not even know existed.
I have come across one such person in my life and she has been a dear friend of mine for years. We don't have too many things in common besides the fact that we love to write and we both used to play volleyball, but that is the beauty of our friendship: we make each other think; we open up spaces in each other's minds that no one else has opened before.
This friend of mine asks me generic questions that anyone could ask in order to get to know the things that I like. For example, she asks me, "what is your favorite color?" But instead of just simply nodding her head after I answer that my favorite color is blue, she asks me, "why?" She does not just ask me what I am studying in school but she asks me why I want to attend college in the first place. She asks me what I am passionate about and why. She asks me that if there was one thing I could do in the whole world without any outside factors affecting it what it would be. She tells me that she loves looking out at the city lights and that she purposely flies on airplanes at night so that she can look down upon the world aglow. She asks me to tell her my life story. She shares with me what she believes to be the meaning of life.
With no one else do I have these conversations. No one else asks me these uninhibitted questions about life and the world and myself. She does not simply want to know the facts about me, she wants to know why these aspects intrigue me, daunt me, and mold me into who I am. It is people like these who fascinate me because their minds are so complex and always reeling and wanting to learn about life and people. They always are coming up with questions and ideas that seize me and intrigue me incomparably. I desperately want to take a peek inside their thoughts and understand how they think because I really do believe that these are the kind of people who have the right idea about life.
I think in life we too often forget to concern ourselves with the why's of each and every day. We are so focused on what is happening, where it is taking place, when it is beginning and ending, and who will be there. We weigh the situation we are in, where we need to be at a certain point in our lives, the estimated time in which we will achieve our goals, and who will help us achieve them. Living life this way just makes every day boring, bland, and seem like a habitual routine instead of living in awe of the magnificence of life and all of the riveting wonders that exist around us. Understanding the basic facts of our every day lives is important and necessary, but it should not be our focus.
We should be asking ourselves "why" much more often than we do. Because asking ourselves why we do things or want things or feel a drive to achieve things makes us formulate and understand the reasons that we feel these things are necessary in the first place. And if we cannot come up with any reasons why, then maybe they aren't necessary after all.
Why's create depth and meaning to our lives. Ask yourself why you chose to wear those specific clothes today. Ask yourself why you chose the profession that you did. Ask yourself why you continue to have a relationship with your best friend. Ask yourself why you do not have a great relationship with your sister. Ask yourself why you had that strange dream the night before. Ask yourself why roses are your favorite flower. Ask yourself why you prefer winter to summer. Ask yourself why cheesecake is your favorite dessert. Ask yourself why you love the ocean. Ask yourself why you feel happy.
These why's will lead you to discover spaces in your mind that have been laying dormant for much too long. These questions will help you to learn things about yourself and about life. They will make you realize what truly makes you happy, brings you joy, and makes you absolutely love being alive.
