Dear Readers,
I’ve often talked about people, since a lot of people have had a great impact over my life. But, to be honest, I’ve been in a love-hate relationship with them since the beginning of my times. The numerous times I wanted to be in the middle of them, enjoying their company… But there were even more times when I wanted to run away from them, as far as possible, preferably in the middle of nowhere.
We like to talk about people a lot. We like to put them in categories. We like to catalog them. We like to compare them. We like to do all sorts of things to them. Every new person that we meet is checked inside and out until there is no mystery left of them. And we will meet hundreds of people in our lifetime. If we are lucky or unlucky,( if you prefer), we will meet thousands of them… Thousands of people that we will catalog, we will edit them and save them in our memories.
If you are at the beginning of your journey, then you have just started to meet these people. And here is a short history of people that you might meet. My people are inspired from John Lennon’s song, but are less political. Sometimes I will refer to these people as “they”, “them”, “theirs”. “ I”, “you”, “he/she”, “we” and “you” will also be included. In extremely rare cases, you will face more than half of these people in one person.
There will be beautiful people, ugly people, fat, slim or athletic people, funny, boring, smart and stupid people, people who, no matter what you do to impress them, won’t take you seriously.
There will be people who will dismantle you with simple words, just because they can.
People who will walk right through you on the street, as if you were invisible.
There will be people who will steal from you, call you names, talk behind your back and spread rumors about you.
There will be people you will call best friend, who will move on with their lives while living you behind. People who will promise to stick by your side forever and on first occasion, they will turn their back on you.
There will be people who will promise to love you until the end of times, people who tell you they love you everyday, while leaving bruises on your body, mind and soul.
There will be people who will forget that you ever existed. They will forget your name and erase the memory of you from their very existence.
There will be people who will tell you everyday that they don’t care… about you or anything else in the world for that matter.
There will be people you will contradict with, no matter the topic of conversation you are having. There will be people who will try to change your opinion and mind about everything all the time. There will be people who will keep telling you that you are wrong.
There will be people who will disappoint you, ignore you and dishonor you. People who will do an injustice to you.
There will be people you will hate and they will hate you back.
There will be people who will call you theirs. And just like with any other toy they fight to own, they will put you on display for a while, until they will get bored with you, put you aside and start looking for the next best thing they will like to poses. There will be people who will look at you and treat you as an object.
People who will lie to you on a daily basis.
There will be people who will cheat on you. People you think you know everything about, but you actually have no idea who they are.
There will be people who will look at your whole nakedness as if it was a gift to them. They will be inside of you. Or you inside of them. And the next day, they will pass by you and pretend they’ve never seen you before.
There will be people who will make you lose your mind and become out of control.
There will be people who will make decisions for you and impose a way of life for you. There will be people who won’t give any options.
There will be people who will make you clash, crash and fall.
People who will make you cry.
People who will make you stop believing in yourself.
There will be people who will demand the impossible from you.
People who will twist every word you say and turn them against you.
There will be people who will haunt your dreams since the very first moment you meet them and continue to do so years after.
There will be people you will turn into obsessions and vice versa.
Humanity is not dead
People who will call you family and actually mean it, even though you are not related.
There will be people you won’t see for years, who will call you t 12.01 am on your birthday to make sure that they are the first ones to tell you “Happy birthday!”
There will be people who will lend you a hand and help you cross the street, even when you don’t want it or need it.
There will be people who will talk about you to their friends and they will all pray for you, even if they don’t know you personally.
There will be people who will make you laugh, who will ask for very little to nothing in return.
There will be people you will look at for only 15 minutes and will inspire your life forever.
There will be people you will call in the middle of the night and will come right away to give you comfort, without frowning upon the fact that you just woke them up.
There will be people who will rarely tell you they love you and will stay by your side forever.
There will be people who will listen to you. They will believe in you. And support your ideas.
There will be people you will confess your deepest thoughts to, people who will take your secrets to the grave.
There will be people who will gather to help you and support you when your down.
There will be people who will read half of your soul just by looking at you once.
There will be people who will smile at you on the subway, the most beautiful and sincere smile in your life.
There will be people who will take you by surprise everyday.
People who will bring coolness to a whole new level.
There will be people who will stop and ask you: “Hey, miss/mister, are you ok?” when they see you crying on the streets.
There will be people who will check on you to make sure you are not dead, when you’re sleeping on a bench in a park.
There will be people who will take a stand when others do you harm.
There will be people who will accept you as you are.
There will be people who will have absolutely no shame and will give you the warmest hug and the softest kiss on the forehead right when you cross the street or walk down the stairs at the mall.
There will be people you will run 2 km with just to get to a cake shop in time before closing to eat a piece of cake.
There will be people who will help you carry your shopping bags or even a bucket of water every day or every time they are around.
There will be people you will take a small elevator with once and will give you the nicest feel of closeness.
People who will give you their scarf or jacket when they see you shivering on the street.
People who will stop you so you can take a photo of them when they see your camera hanging around your neck.
There will be people who will open your eyes so you can take a better look at things. Moreover so, since your eyes have been shut for years.
There will be people who will help you listen closer, so close that you can hear the sky breathing.
There will be people who will give you three extra spicy hot wings and wink at you when they do so.
People who will bring you coffee every morning.
People who will smash a plate besides the one you have smashed just so you won’t feel guilty.
There will be people who will help you find your way.
There will be people who will cross an ocean to meet you once.
There will be people who will sit next to you or save you a sit next to them during every class for years.
There will be people who will give you and 20 other girls flowers on Women’s Day.
There will be people who will choose the worst words to describe you when, in fact, they want to show respect.
There will be people who will rise against you, to steal your leadership but what they do is save you from a burden that you never wanted in the first place.
There will be people who will give you a pair of ear rings on your 18th birthday and say that it was from the whole class.
There will be people who will immediately shut the door behind them or instantly close their eyes when they walk in on you right when you are changing your clothes.
There will be people you will want to see every day just to hear their voices or listen to their accents.
There will be people who will share their lunch with you.
There will be people who will see the beauty of you dancing in the rain and will take a snapshot of you and will spread it around just to make sure that the rest of the world sees it too.
There will be people who will invite you to dance even if you are hiding in the darkest corner of the ballroom.
People who will bend rules for you when you don’t have the means to meet them.
There will be people who will look straight into your eyes for an hour or two not to make you feel insecure but to make you find the guts to lift your eyes from the ground and look right back into theirs.
They will be your family, your friends, your best friends, your best friends forever or merely acquaintances.
They will be your enemies or life nemesis.
They will be your teachers and mentors.
They will be nothing or everything to you.
We are the people who rule the world.
Choose your side wisely, kids!
Cătălina.
P.S.: I am aware that I didn’t even cover 1% of “us”.
