Would you notice her in the picture? Would you walk on by like nothing ever happened? Would you ask what happened to her? Would you help that girl?
Let's look at some other people you might find on a college campus first or just in everyday life.
A homesick girl crying after a phone call from home. What happens to her? Do people see the mascara running down her face? No, well not the first time anyways. She walks around like this twice, and the second time, someone she doesn't even know brings her a box of tissues. Then she calls a friend to be comforted later.
A blind woman walks out of a master's school building on campus. She is not only a student, but she's going to get her master's degree. Someone notices her and gets out of her way so she can walk.
An old, limping man walks down the stairs. Someone passes by, but stops and asks, "are you okay? Do you need help?" Come to find out, he just has a bad knee and takes a little more time to get down the stairs.
A cafeteria worker serving food to college students. Does someone notice her, or do they just think, "this is her job." Why should we thank her? Someone does notice her and speaks Spanglish to her. That person found out she wants her grandkids to learn Spanish, but you gotta start them young.
But what happens to her? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not until she passed at least 50 people on campus. How do I know? This girl is me.
By clicking at this article, you saw me, or at least a picture that my friend took of me. I really looked this sad this past week, and no one said anything. However, i'm not looking for sympathy or acknowledgment for myself. I'm looking for others to notice people who hardly ever get noticed. The people that have struggles. People that are in pain. I realize we cannot help everybody, but we can at least help one. You see, we focus on people not noticing us, but we hardly focus on other people.
To be honest, we are so self absorbed that we often forget about everyone around us. While I notice all these people, I often forget about the ones right in front of me. I forget about my best friend, my roommate, my mom, my dad, my professor, my classmates, and my pastor. I even forget the one who made me — God. Even though he never forgets about me.
You may be thinking, “Wow, this girl sounds like Dory from "Finding Nemo" and "Finding Dory" (great movies, by the way!) No, I am not a fish, but yes, I do have “short term remembery loss!”
It’s not so much as being forgetful, but it’s more like I’m not aware of them. Which is ludicrous, because I want others to be aware of me. I want people to notice me! How many of you have thought that? But how many of you notice other people?
I find that our culture likes to notice the popular subjects. As of right now, there’s racial injustice and the election, but guess what? The affected and the candidates are people too. Can we truly say that we see these people as human, or just as the labels we give them?
People are complex and hardly ever identify with one thing. People are more than their skin color —black, white, red, yellow, brown, green, purple, blue. God sees you. Students are more than their major. business, journalism, Christian ministries, cinema media arts, public relations, sociology, undeclared, mechanical engineering, intercultural studies, accounting. God sees you. East Coast, West Coast, the South, the North, Midwest, Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. Territories, Pacific Islands, Central America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. God sees you.
Whatever labels you have been given, and whatever labels you have given others. Realize that you are so much more and they are too. See people as people. See the pain. Delve into the uncomfortable. Know that every rose has thorns, every calm has a storm, every person has a story, and every piece of it is beautiful because we are, and always will be, fearfully and wonderfully made.
God sees us Through and Through.
