I walked into an elevator today, and three other people walked in with me. We each pressed a different button and rode up in silence. There were two women and a man, all dressed differently, with different expressions and different classrooms to reach. That's when it struck me how absorbed we become in our own lives, and how easily we forget how varied other people's lives are.
The woman to my right kept her eyes on her phone the whole ride. She was typing so intently that I worried she might miss her floor. Maybe she was finishing an assignment due that day. Maybe she was arguing with a friend. Whatever was on that screen, there was probably a whole story unfolding in her life that I would never see.
When she stepped out on the first floor, the man in front of me began to fidget. He carried a huge briefcase in one hand and four notebooks in the other arm. His face was tense, as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Maybe it was. We all have moments when worries pile up, and I realized that, beneath our differences, we all know what it feels like to be overwhelmed. There is some comfort in that. We are rarely as alone in our feelings as we think.
Stress was not the only feeling in that small space. The other woman had been smiling all the way from the ground floor to the third. She was trying to hide it, but she couldn't. We never spoke, yet her good mood was catching. I felt happy for a complete stranger who seemed to be having a wonderful day.
Each of us in that elevator was the main character of our own story and a side character in everyone else's. Even a brief moment with those side characters can leave a mark.
We rarely stop to think about the people we pass every day. Maybe we should look up now and then. We will never know most strangers' stories, but remembering that everyone carries a world of their own is enough to remind us that ours is not the only one that matters.
So the next time you share an elevator, look around. You may find a reason to smile, and a new line for your own story.