Passing Ships

There are a lot of moments in my life that I can point to as having had a big impact. Graduating college, starting my first job, and meeting my significant other, to name a few. However, the moment that I want to focus on is one that might seem small in the grand scheme of things, but it ended up changing my perspective in a big way.

It was a Saturday afternoon in the summer of 2015. I was walking down a busy street in my hometown, lost in thought. I had just finished my junior year of college, and I was feeling pretty aimless. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do with my life, but I had no real plan for how to get there. I was feeling stuck and frustrated.

As I walked, I noticed an older man sitting on a bench. He was wearing a hat and a jacket, despite the warm weather. He was sitting very still, with his hands folded in his lap. I assumed he was waiting for someone, or maybe just enjoying the nice day.

As I got closer, I saw that he was holding a small, worn-out notebook. It was open to a page covered in tiny, cramped handwriting. I couldn't make out what it said, but I could tell that whatever he was writing was important to him.

For some reason, I felt drawn to the man and his notebook. I slowed down as I walked past him, trying to get a better look. He didn't seem to notice me.

I kept walking, but something about the man and his notebook stayed with me. I found myself wondering what he was writing, and why it was so important to him. I wondered if he was a writer, or maybe a poet. I wondered if he was writing a letter to someone he loved, or maybe to someone he had lost.

As I continued down the street, I realized that I had been feeling so lost and aimless because I didn't have anything that felt that important to me. I didn't have anything that made me feel like I had to write it down, or like my thoughts and feelings were so big and complex that they needed to be put on paper.

I realized that I had been living my life on autopilot, going through the motions without really engaging with the world around me. I had been so focused on achieving certain goals and milestones that I had lost sight of what really mattered to me.

That small moment, seeing the man with his notebook, was a wake-up call for me. It made me realize that I needed to start paying attention to the small things in my life, and to start looking for meaning and significance in unexpected places.

Over the next few months, I started to make some changes. I started journaling every day, even if I didn't have anything particularly interesting to say. I started going for walks without any destination in mind, just to see what I would find. I started talking to strangers more often, and listening to their stories.

As I did these things, I started to feel more connected to the world around me. I started to notice things that I had never noticed before - the way the light looked at certain times of day, the sound of birds chirping in the morning, the way people's faces looked when they were truly happy or sad.

I started to feel more alive, more present in my own life. I started to realize that the small moments were just as important as the big ones, and that paying attention to them could reveal profound truths about myself and the world.

This new perspective had a big impact on me in a lot of ways. It changed the way I approached my relationships, my career, and my personal growth. It made me realize that I didn't need to have everything figured out in order