People can be awesome

I’m not prone to noticing or being affected by touching human interactions.

It is because I have blackened charred heart.

But I noticed one this week.

We were running an online wellbeing session for students.

As part of the session, participants were asked to identify someone in their social network that could help them make positive changes to their life.

One of the participants, in the text chat, asked what they should do if they didn’t have someone they could ask.

I saw the message and froze a little.

‘Ahh f(&k’ I thought to myself. One of the real challenges of exercises involving consideration of social networks is that some people (quite a lot actually) don’t have supportive networks.

But before I could offer some kind of ‘that sounds like a psychologist wrote it’ lame reply, another member of the group wrote something along the lines of ‘well you have me’, offering themselves as a contact person for the week.

What followed was a brief but heart-warming exchange as multiple participants expressed a desire and willingness to form a little online community to ensure everyone in the group had a buddy to call on in their attempts to build a better version of themselves.

That little outpouring of human kindness actually set in motion formal plans to complement the wellbeing program with a support community of individuals interested in bettering themselves and helping others in the same space. It seems that people who share, even a relatively minor shift in life direction, find comfort in each other’s presence.

All it took was one person to express unconditional willingness to help another. Someone had to be willing to help, but more than that, willing to speak up and risk rejection.

Turns out people can be fucking awesome sometimes.

Blackened heart healed a little.