Remember When

The ability to be empathetic, in part comes as a result of looking back and remembering your own past experiences. You may not be in high school anymore but hopefully you can remember the tremendous amount of pressure you experienced in wanting to be accepted by your peers, without letting down the ones you love. You don’t have to be in love for the first time, to understand the desperate feeling of always wanting to be with that first love. You don’t need to have your first child again, to understand the quarantine that a first time parent puts their newborn in, to protect them from a world of germs. You don’t need to have a 1st grader, to understand the paparazzi at a 1st grade, thanksgiving production. You don’t have to experience your first born leaving to college, to understand the joy and sorrow of the parent who sends them. You don’t have to plan your child’s wedding, to understand the time, effort, joy and sorrow that comes with planning one.
The only thing you have to do is “remember when” and if you have not lived it than live “what if”.