Shrinking world, growing empathy

I guess this all started in elementary school where I met foreigners for the first time in my life. Americans, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and many others.

I became friends with them and started to be interested in their culture. That's where my love for Japan started growing. It was my dream to go there and meet my friends again. But it didn’t stop there, I started travelling and studying abroad and becoming closer with different parts of world. I made friends easily and I tried to get to know more about them. I wanted to understand why they became who they are. Especially by living in different countries, I have been able to connect with others. I fell in love with these countries, their culture and their people. 

By travelling across the continents, world seems to be shrinking. Distances which I considered extremely far can be reached with some effort. It’s similar when you revisit old places after you grow up. Paths seem to be shorter, hills seem to be smaller. Everything shrinks and you grow. It’s the same with countries – the countries that have been far far away are like neighbors now.

Above all… when a big disaster happens in a country, everybody feels sorry for the people, right? I remember the large tsunami in 2004, but I couldn’t quite grasp it as a kid. It felt like it happened in some completely different world completely unrelated to where I was.

But now, everything is close. Wars in countries feel like they are touching our borders. And when an earthquake occurs in a country where my friends come from, even if they are not there, I feel like I am there. I feel the pain of the local people. There is an unexplainable attachment which makes me more vulnerable. It seems as if I can understand better what they are going through.

Making friends from all parts of the world might seem like something crazy or hurtful sometimes, but I believe it makes us more strong and understanding beings. Yes, we might not see them for a long time, if ever again, but we also become much more sensitive when it comes to the world. We appreciate what we have and care for places we have never visited or dreamed of before.