I have been thinking a lot lately about how we really tend to give people simple labels about their experiences that in actuality are a huge essence of who they are. It's not out of rudeness, it's just impossible to really understand a lot of experiences we haven't been through, even if they are some of the most defining times for a person.
Here are a few examples: he has a chronic illness, she lost a child, he lost his job, she had a baby, they adopted a child, he cares for his aging parents, etc. Simple labels that describe huge experiences. Obviously there are tons, both good and bad. And often we don't know which ones other people are or have experienced, or how much they still deal with them on a daily basis.
It's easy (but sad) to say that someone lost a child, without thinking more than a few minutes what that person's life might be like now. Obviously we feel sad for anyone in that situation, but say it happened many years ago. It's likely that we don't think about it anymore, even if they are still thinking about it and hurting every day.
I have mostly been thinking about this because I have been thinking about myself (shocker), and how much I think about Ecuador as a defining experience for me. I still think about it every. But I doubt that anyone else thinks about it any more other than a random fact in passing that I spent some time in South America. Which is fine, it just serves as a good reminder for me to always work hard to remember I don't know where people are coming from. I don't know what they are dealing with, or what they have dealt with both good and bad. So the next time before I assume someone is one way or the other, I hope that I will be able to realize there is always more to the situation than what I see on the surface.
