Word 3: Sonder

It means that feeling we get when we realize that the strangers we are staring at when people-watching while sitting at a coffee shop by a street or walkway have their own complex lives, which we know nothing about. They have their own memories, things that keep them awake at night, failures, hopes. I get this feeling everyday as I take my 15-minute walk to work. For a moment, I forget about my own silly worries and fears, and I am decentered. A complete stranger becomes my center. And for that moment, I’m forced to detatch, and to lose myself to others, to their unknowns, and to the simplicity of walking.