Tonight, my friend Aaron and I were in the school's cafe in line for food and we made a friend.
Honestly, I don't remember his name but I can tell you his story. He's from New York City (more specifically Queens) and he grew up/lives/breaths Disney. His favorite two Disney cartoons are Aladdin and Peter Pan. He loves roller coasters and his very first one was Space Mountain at Disney World. He's got over 200 VHS tapes of Disney Movies.
I know what you're thinking, Chris Peters is a stalker, but please, bear with me.
We didn't have to ask much for him to open up about all of this and quite frankly he had a lot more to say. I just think it's incredible that within each of us lies this desire to be noticed. Whether we want the acceptance of friends, family, spouses or co-workers, we crave it.
I think it's amazing that we had the chance to meet him, but at the same time I'm so sorry that we had to be those guys.
Allow me to clarify. Someone somewhere along the way dropped the ball and did not lend an ear when they were meant to. Now granted, we did and maybe we were supposed to, but we were placed in that moment and in that part of the line for that very reason. The only problem is, we had to leave. We could only be a small part of the conversation in his life. He invited us to sit and eat with him, but we had things we were on a time line to finish up and in that moment my heart felt for him.
The problem is, yes I felt for him, I really did but I also moved on quickly because my mind was on other things.
If I had been more focused on the conversation, maybe I would've helped to make more of an impact. Maybe I could've done better.
The truth is, I'd like to think that Aaron and I accomplished something great by listening to him but I feel like I could've done more. I'll never forget him, and I hope to talk to him in the future, but more importantly I hope that someone else finds the courage to help him along the way. Sometimes we can only do so much and then someone else is supposed to step in and offer something better.
I know that I've had my own problems with keeping relationships intact over the years as it is.
I don't really have a solution to this. Normally I'm able to wrap things up with a quote or a line from a song, but tonight as I write this I just have some questions and understand that I'm asking this to myself as well as to those who are reading this.
What could you do to make those around you better?
What needs to happen for you to start changing the world?
Who will you choose to be?
Think about it.
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