Junmey Wang
Student Writer
Every person you pass by has a story if you’d stop – and listen. This is a work-in-progress – a project to share the voices around us that are awaiting to be heard. The stories you’ll read here help us explore universal truths and our common humanity, bringing to light the points in which our varied paths intersect and diverge. This is an invitation to reclaim the conversations and moments that we easily let slip in between the cracks: the ones that make us real.
Abigail Roth
Senior Chinese Studies and International Business double major
“I’m secretly a realist, trying to be an idealist.
People’s stories explain the way they are. I’ve moved a lot, and I’ve lost people, loved ones—that’s been a trend that’s recurred throughout most of my life.
When we moved to Shanghai in my 6th grade (year), everyone at school had moved from foreign countries, and we were all in this same place. None of us had any friends, so when we got there, we all wanted to connect with people. We all shared this desire to belong—to feel like we mattered, I guess. Regardless of where you are in life, you do still feel that need to belong. You don’t want to feel as if you’re just a number, or that you’re conforming to being one, but you want to feel like what you’re doing does make a difference and that you are having an impact on the people around you
Something that is emphasized to our generation—almost to our detriment—is the idea of our identity: that we have to know who we are, and that we must fit into some box. I think if you don’t necessarily know who you are, that’s okay. Your experiences are always shaping you, and there’s never one point in time when you’re going to be exactly the same.”
If you know of someone on campus that has a unique story, email me at jw1474@messiah.edu.