Do you ever have those days where you wonder: What if one little thing would've gone differently on that day? You ponder how much of a different life you'd be living now if "said thing" had or hadn't happened. If you hadn't met one person, if that night never happened, or even if you were born in a different state. Who would you be now if you hadn't had these experiences that impacted your current state in life?
This thought exactly is one I think of more often than I'd like to admit. Especially when it comes to meeting people, you have to wonder how different your life would be if you had or hadn't done a certain thing. However, I realized recently that without all of these encounters I wouldn't be the same person today.
If I had never met that rude person which I later mutually bonded over hating, I wouldn't have made a friend off a mutual-disdain towards this individual. If I would have chosen to go out to this party versus studying all night for a big test, would I have met someone who may have become an important person in my present life? If I lived in another state, would I have the same outlook on life as I do now prior to growing up here?
Maybe there's not exactly a reason we meet each person we encounter, but there is a change in our reality from each interaction. Our perspective on life is not established right when we're born. It builds over time through each experience we have with different people. And this may happen slowly, but it happens every single day.
Every single choice we make leads to another choice. Every person we witness, talk to, or observe every day we form some sort of an opinion on. Whether it's good, neutral, or bad, we are forming new opinions that become a part of who we are as individuals.
This is why I believe I'm a part of every person I've met. Some people impacted me more than others, while some people were merely just a passing thought lasting no more than a few seconds. Some people made me see life in a more positive light, and some people made me see life in a more negative light.
Even for those people which you don't enjoy their presence, they taught you exactly who you don't want to be. Even for that lady in the grocery store who smiled at you, reminded us that a warm smile can brighten anyone's day. Not forgetting those people that made you feel such joy, reminding us that happiness is contagious yet so wonderful.
If we're all a part of the people we encounter every day, I ask you: What do you personally want other people to take from you? Whether you want to fill someone up with negativity or joy, it is all purely only up to one person: you.