“Like all teenagers, I was convinced my parents had ruined my life.”
Claire, adorer of sunrises and freshly baked bread, describes the way in which she took her upbringing for granted.
Claire laments, “The reasons that I wasn’t happy and the reasons that my life was going nowhere was a direct result of the decisions they had made on how to raise me and what education they gave me and what rules they placed on me. Even now, knowing my parents adore me and made every decision for me on what they thought would be best for me, I still try to distance myself from them and rarely make the effort to call them and share my life with them.”
Yet over time, Claire has met more people and grown better acquainted with the world. This newfound insight has inspired a shift in mindset, as she now realizes the fortunate blessing of her loving parents.
“I have friends whose parents don’t understand them, friends whose parents don’t care about them, friends whose parents abandoned them, friends whose parents abuse them—even the friends whose parents love them may do so in ways that are detrimental to their wellbeing. But my entire life, my parents have only ever tried to pour themselves into me and shower me with all the good things the world has to offer.” Claire’s parents listen to her thoughts, make an effort to remain close, support her dreams, and work to understand who she wants to be. “I would be nothing without the love and support I received all my life from my parents and the same love and support which sustains me today.”
Between the highest and lowest points in Claire’s life, she has learned the value of love and humanity in keeping the world turning on its axis. She describes a small moment that had a tremendous influence on her—a moment when a stranger’s kindness altered the entire course of her thoughts.
When Claire was at an all-time low, she was consumed by desolation: “My own sadness caused the outside world to appear gray and empty, echoing the emptiness I felt inside. Each day felt like a meaningless drift through purposelessness and I took no joy or happiness out of anything.”
One day, she was sitting outside of her school waiting to be picked up by her mother. She remembers, “The day had been empty and bleak like many before it, and I sat feeling only dejection and sadness ebb out from me.”
Suddenly, she was approached by a boy she had never seen before. “I wondered what he could possibly want when he simply shook my hand and said, ‘This might sound weird but I just want to tell you I hope that you have a great day.’” He then walked away, and Claire never saw him again. But it was this encounter that revived Claire’s true happiness, allowing her to finally feel seen. “For the first time in a long while, I felt happy the rest of the day.”
The moment also taught Claire a valuable lesson: “I felt there were kind people in the world who loved others… I think of that moment often as a sign of the genuine kindness and goodwill humans carry inside of them and as evidence that we’re not a damned species but a people trying our best to love one another.”
Claire strives to fill her life with as much love and peace as possible. She describes a typical scene of the moments she feels that she’s experiencing life to its fullest:
“I spend hours scrolling through Bon Appetit, planning imaginary menus in my head. I settle on the perfect combination of dishes and then go to groceries stores and tiny, hidden international markets to pick up ingredients. I invite my closest friends; I spend the day dancing around in my kitchen to my favorite music as I chop herbs and simmer spices. I carefully set my table, turn the lights down low and light candles, and put some slow Ella Fitzgerald songs on the stereo. My friends trickle in with laughter and warm greetings as I take dishes out of the oven and spoon food into bowls. We sit around the table, if just for a couple hours. In those hours as we share food with each other, we laugh uncontrollably, we open our hearts and worries to each other, we may even end up crying to one another. For a few hours, all the busyness and chaos of the world vanishes as we sit exchanging peace and warmth with one another.”
Hosting dinner parties replenishes Claire, and she hopes the people she loves most in the world leave her home feeling just as filled up and refreshed as she does.
Sometimes, Claire considers what it means to be in love, and a line from a song comes to her mind — It’s like you’re watching the world/through a new set of eyes/finding the colors that usually hide.”
The first time Claire fell in love, her entire world turned upside down: “It wasn’t just that I had found another person whom I adored and made my stomach drop and heart race and whom wanted to share every moment of my life with—it was that suddenly that the world itself sharpened into splendor and revealed itself to be glorious.”
Beyond falling in love with a person, she fell in love with the world and her life. “The sunsets I saw seemed to be uniquely magnificent, the music I listened to was heartbreakingly beautiful, the moments of my own life were important and fascinating. Falling in love with another person made me discover the beauty of the world around me like I had barely known it before.”
Although the person is no longer a part of her life, the experience of falling in love changed her life outlook forever.
Claire reflects, “The immense wonder of the world around me has not faded thanks to the genuine individual who revealed it.”
About Claire
Adorer of sunrises and freshly baked bread
Between the Lines 