I was walking along the street downtown, hoping to catch the bus home where I could finally lay down and debrief my day with my best friend. A thought came across me as I walked by all the other people around me, those going to the bar to see a game, those running by the sidewalk as they try to keep their New Year’s Resolution of running every day (even in horrible conditions) and even the delivery drivers haphazardly trying to make a living swerving through crowds of people. At that moment, I cared so much for those strangers, I cared about whether or not that delivery driver was going to be well-tipped, whether the people waiting for the bus would hop on before it started to rain again, I cared about each of their journeys. The moment passed and as I hopped on the bus to finally go home, I thought about all the times a stranger might have cared for me. They might’ve cared as I was pushing a moving cart uphill to try and move into my apartment, as I stumbled drunkenly at 2 AM past them waiting for the bus to try and make it back to my dorm, maybe it was every night I would leave my room to walk to the bridge 3 blocks away and look below. Merely looking, and then sitting in defeat against it while looking up at the sky. I like to imagine that every driver and every person that walked by cared, even if they didn’t stop, they cared enough to hope I got up and went to sleep.

Sometimes when I think that nobody cares I like to remind myself of that fact, that every day as I walk by people I’ve cared so much about them and they never had a clue about it. I would urge everyone to remember this, because if strangers have the capability of holding this amount of care for others, just imagine what those people in your life hold for you.

People care, the world cares, you matter