Six Word Story:
"Part of me is yours.  Always."

As I do when I look for six word stories to write about once a week, I considered the meaning of this week's story to me.  Usually many meanings to a six word story come to mind, and more come to mind the longer I think. The first thought I had about this particular six word story was that it was probably written about a romantic relationship.  It was probably intended to imply that the writer was so in love with someone (a partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, one night stand) that there was a piece of themselves that they had forever given away to someone else.  Their love.  I tend to think that's a pretty universal experience with relationships.  When we love someone we give a piece of ourselves to them forever.  We give them our love forever.  Even when the relationship ends, that person still has our love, or at least the absence of our love.  If we haven't left them with our love or the absence of love, then we've left them with our time, or our thoughts, or our annoyance, or our grief, or our anger.  We have given them something.

The more I thought about this though, I realized that this giving part of ourselves to someone is not exclusive to romantic relationships, or even relationships of love that are more familial in nature.  It crossed me that with every single interaction that we have, everyday, we give a part of ourselves to someone else, and gain a part of that person as our own.  These transactions leave us with permanent gains and losses.  We will always posses that which we gained, and we will have forever lost that which we have given.

Think of all of the people with whom you come in contact everyday. I'll use a typical day of my own as an example.  On a typical day I encounter professors, other graduate students, undergraduate students, advisees, supervisors, the check-out person at the grocery store, the person who got to the stop sign at the same time as me, the man on the corner asking for money, the man outside of his bodega, the person who walked past my window...etc..  I have interactions with hundreds of people everyday.  From each of these people I gain and lose something forever.  From a professor I gain any information that he/she teaches and he/she gains any insight I share in class, or even just the sense that they are needed and valued.  My students gain from me (hopefully) helpful words, support, and direction in their academics.  From them I gain the satisfaction of helping someone and usually some perspective.  From the grocery store clerk I gain food and assistance.  From me, they gain a smile, gratitude, and (indirectly) a pay check.

Once we gain something from someone, a part of them, their hard work, or knowledge, or gratitude, or perspective, they never get that back.  It is ours forever.  This works in the reverse as well as anything we give is theirs forever.  After each interaction that we have with another person, we are irrevocably changed, for better or worse, in a minuscule way or a massive way.  We have gained and lost parts of ourselves with each interaction in a beautiful and symbiotic manner.  This is how we progress as individuals-- by giving parts of ourselves away to others.  Always.

Keep on thinking,
Josie