Look Closer

"If only they'd look closer.....they'd find out there's so much more to me."
-Aladdin 

I woke up this morning and that was the first thing I saw when I checked twitter. How appropriate.

Sometimes I feel that people don't take time to really get to know each other. We have the version of ourselves that we show society. Maybe this version is more professional and quieter than you are around the people you count as your closest friends. There's parts of you that you don't want the rest of the world to see just yet. And that's perfectly okay. I myself do that. It's how we survive day to day in a society that hates anything that is different than "normal."

But if only people would take a look a bit closer. They would see the hurt that some people are hiding from pasts that they rarely speak of. They would see the kind and compassionate hearts that we are told to hide because emotions are a weakness. They would see the years of knowledge and struggle some have to go through just to get where they are.

Why do we spend so much time ignoring these things? Instead we gloss over them and talk basics.

This is why whenever I meet with one of my students....for anything, whether it be academic, discipline, roommate problems, advising, ANYTHING...I try to get to know them a bit first, beyond them being a student who has come to me for help. I don't pry, of course....but I ask them WHY they've chosen their major, not simply what their major is. I ask them WHY they chose Kent State, and I ask them what they do for fun on campus. I make sure I make that connection with them, so they can see that I am trying to look closer. I am trying to see the whole person who is sitting in front of me...because there is so much more to everyone if we would just take a moment to look. To talk. To make that connection. I have had so many students come back to me for help because I've taken that time to actually get to know them and connect with them...to look beyond what I have on my computer screen.

I know that there's so much more to me as a person...and I know it's no different for them. If I can show them that I care and I can make a difference, then I'm doing my job right. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters.