a long time ago I was tasked with writing a “TED” talk for my English class. I was kinda proud of it, I got 100 on it so it’s probably good.
What if I said I’m a mosaic of every person I’ve interacted with? What if I said you were too? You might be thinking I’m crazy or ‘what even is a mosaic?’, but I can prove it. And if you're actually wondering what a mosaic is, it’s a form of art made of multiple colorful pieces, typically glass or stone.
You may have been told a couple of cliche phrases like ‘you are who your friends are,’ or ‘show me your friends, I’ll show you your future,’ or something equally as boring, but there’s some truth in them, as annoying and repetitive as these phrases may seem. If you really think about it, and I mean really think about it, you, me, and everyone else in this classroom–this building has been and is being affected by it. A large majority of what makes a person unique is the people they surround themselves with. Your friends, your teachers, coworkers, classmates, and your family all play some part in making you into yourself.
If you still don’t get where I’m going with this, I still have time to explain it better.
Have you ever spent so long with someone that you start subconsciously picking up on phrases they say a lot? Maybe you started doing something they do a lot. One of my friends always greets people by tapping their pointer and thumb together, without realizing I started doing it too. I found some of my favorite series and games through my friends. I found that being around them changed me for the better. I adopted their mannerisms and speech patterns, and over time, we started making jokes only we would understand. My friends and family became a big part of who I am and why I am the way I am.
How does this affect me in my own life? I started liking things I haven't normally liked; little things have shifted just because of the memories I have attached to them. My favorite color is green, but my partner’s favorite is purple, and I’ve found myself using the purple heart emoji by default. I was never much of a brownie lover, but my best friend adored them, and very quickly, they became one of my favorite desserts, second to flans. It’s not that I’m trying to copy them, but by being close to them, things I had no opinion on became something I started to enjoy just because they liked it. Sometimes I did these things subconsciously, like I wasn’t even aware of why I suddenly grew so fond of something. My best friend and I started to understand each other in a way most people only knew themselves. We knew when one of us texted that we were bored, they wanted to call, that ‘wyd’ was really ‘can you FaceTime?’, where we knew each other so well we knew what the other would answer before we asked the question.
When I lost my best friend in December, I noticed the impact he left on me a lot more. His favorite color was red, a color i prevously couldn’t care less about, but somehow started to find a lot more of around my room. Quotes from him, things I made when he was around, and a dozen other motifs of his life in my space; a Spiderman plush, a character, a drawing, and my absurd amount of paper cranes. He wasn’t just a person in my life; he was a key part of it.
The friends I picked and the friends who picked me were people I saw myself in, but could also see a better version of myself in. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the people who helped me get here. They all played a key part in who I am now and who I will become in the future. People come and go, but every person you’ve cared about has made an impact on you, no matter how small it may seem.
