The Little Things: Stories from the Past 2 Months

I realize that the title is unusually long. I also realize that I've been somewhat remiss in posting for a couple of months now. In one word: applications. All the essays and all the writing and none of the time... to do anything but applications. However, life has continued through big things and small. The following are a series of short encounters that got me thinking.

Story 1:

Apartment hunting is an interesting business, with some apartments being posted for insane prices and disappearing within the same day. A friend and I were looking for an apartment that was still "reasonably priced" and considered splitting a 1 bedroom that had a living room or some other sort of room, since I was relatively willing to just rough it for a while and she also didn't feel like spending most of her paycheck on rent. I was talking to the realtor and asked if it was possible for the two of us to split a 1 bedroom apartment, and he said, "Let's go ahead and put you guys down as a couple. What you do in your place is your business." Well, great idea except NOT AT ALL. So I told him I would prefer he just put us down as friends and that we would respect the owner's decision - if he wasn't cool with two friends splitting the apartment, we would look elsewhere. Honestly, I was really surprised by the realtor's reaction - he sounded relieved and said, "I'm so glad we talked about this." Maybe it's just me, but that was weird. 

Story 2:

Someone was saying that on his birthday, he wanted to wear a paper crown because he "wanted to feel special." While he made the comment about the paper crown half in jest, he was completely serious about wanting to feel special. He made that comment a few other times as well, and this statement made me sad. Seeing this person who wanted to feel special not knowing that he was super special to the God of the universe, I wondered how many other people go through life in this same manner - not recognizing that there is a God who loves them but knowing that something is missing all the same.

Story 3:

We were discussing how to best design a system and we decided that if we chose a specific strategy, it would essentially guilt the users into getting their work done. One person commented, "Well, guilting works really well. Trust me, I'm Catholic." I grimaced at that one. I just wanted to yell that's not what it's all about! You're completely missing the whole point. We've been set free and are no longer bound by guilt and shame! There are so many people who are so lost and it's so easy to lose sight of that fact when we're working and interacting with them day after day, week after week, but moments like these stop me in my tracks and remind me that the world around us is sad and lonely and so very lost.