Ever since I was very young when I became conscious of living and recognized that there was a whole, big world out there filled with all sorts of different places and people, I have been fascinated by the individual or personal human experience. I was intrigued by the expanses of space and geography and how I could be having my very own personal experiences and everyone else in the world was having theirs–at essentially the same time. I was perplexed on how there were billions of people doing things, saying things, etc., and I was not part of them… not there to see it, hear it or feel it.

I used to try to imagine what it would be like to truly experience what someone else was experiencing. I wondered what it would be like to see the world through others’ eyes, and how I could somehow transpose myself into someone else’s body to see what it was like to be someone else or know at any given time not only what someone else was doing, but was part of their experience.

Maybe social media serves as that “transporter” for now and gets us closer but this still is, in a sense, one dimensional or only bi-directional. We may be able to share or be in real time and space connected through some digital interface, but not quite able to have an inter-person experience–where we experience someone’s feelings and really know what it is like to be that other person, to be in that other place, etc. This is sort of the ultimate real experience of walking in someone else’s shoes. This poses an interesting question. Are we are ever meant to have that type of experience. Maybe not. You only need your own looking glass. 

I think fairly early on in my life I realized that each one of us is indescribably unique and we are not meant to be somewhere else, be someone else or have someone else’s experiences while in this physical space. We are who we are and where we are at any given moment for a reason.

Regardless of where you are or who you are with, your experiences–what you feel, how you interpret what you see or what you hear–are explicitly and authentically yours. No one can have them or replicate them just as you cannot have or replicate someone else’s experiences. There is something special about that, almost sacred.

Really no one else in the entire world can feel exactly what you feel. No one else can do what you do, think like you think or express themselves like you. This is amazing, perplexing and intriguing all rolled up together… and maybe meant to be.

Each one of us is a unique being experiencing the journey of our lives. It’s this uniqueness and individualism that contributes to the diversity of our world and how we enrich each others lives. I don’t think we should underestimate the importance and value of this. So as fascinating as it is to think what it would be like to be someone else, to see through their eyes, feel their emotions, to be in their consciousness, we should contemplate if would we want someone in ours.