Empathy

I began to learn a valuable life lesson about empathy seven years ago which I’m still building on now. There is so much more to everyone’s lives than the small parts we see, and understanding that and having empathy for one another has invaluable positive impacts for both sides.

After realizing the importance of starting a conversation about this, I wrote this message to share with all who’d read. I’ve also adapted the message to fit WPSU’s “This I Believe” and to fit a letter to the editor for the Centre Daily Times. They’re about 2 pages, 1 page, and half a page, respectively. If you can read whatever you have time for, I hope that this epiphany will help you as much as it has helped me!

The beginning seven years ago was my battle with brain cancer, something that today is invisible to one who doesn’t already know, and is how my family and I learned this lesson. More recently, I realized I had an opportunity to share the life lesson on empathy when I was planning to grow out and cut my hair to donate. After all, my scars are only invisible when I’m bald! Now I can be a walking, talking visual aid and conversation starter.

If you would like to talk or ask about anything, I would be happy to hear from you! My e-mail is brg5241@psu.edu. Feel free to share this message with anyone you’d like, too!

The message has now spread beyond here on my site! The CDT letter to the editor can be read here and was printed in the September 11th, 2019 issue, my friend Lilly of the Daily Collegian wrote an article published in the September 12th edition of the Collegian which you can read along with a video here, and the This I Believe recording aired on December 5th and 8th and can be listened to and read online here.