Human Connection - Blog Post 8

 I have followed Humans of New York on Instagram for quite some time. The journalist in me loves the human connection and story telling this Instagram account offers its following. Over quarantine, like many people I know, I fell into endless spurts of boredom and found myself scrolling through an endless cycle of social media platforms - Twitter to Instagram, back to Twitter, then to snapchat, and finally back to Instagram often finding myself waiting on more #quarantinestories from the @humansofny Instagram account. On March 31, there was a post that (not to be dramatic) literally changed my life. While I couldn't find it on the website, this story is one I couldn't help but write about. Here is the Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-aXKh8nvQk/

While this post is short, it shares a message with the reader that even when things are difficult (even to the point of struggling to continue living your life) there is a purpose and reason for you to continue - whether you see it or not. This post doesn't share the name of the story teller but it shares the loss of her bestfriend. She shares with the reader that her best friend, Leah and Leah's boyfriend, Rasual were killed in a car accident. To the storyteller, Leah and Rasual were family and their passing caused a very difficult and long grieving process. One day, at the storyteller's art exhibit, she shared the space with another artist. She comes to find out that he was extremely close with Rasual and Leah and an instant bond over loss was formed. The other artist, Bonic, is now the storyteller's closest friend and "soul mate." The story ends with, "Without a question - he was the reason I was at that show. At the end of that night, I went back to my hotel room and I wrote an entry in my journal. I wrote the date, and a single line: 'Leah - did you send him to me?'"

This story to me defineshuman connection. A lot of us, if not all of us have experienced loss. An instant bond is made when reading this story and it evokes deep emotions. The photos (I have included only 3 of the 5 photos) that accompany this piece connect each part of her story and bring the reader even closer to what this bond has meant for the story teller. Without the photos I don't think this story would be as emotional or form as deep of a connection. It is such a short story, but the pictures share a story on their own - with both the quote and the photos, a deeper analysis can be made. While not everyone can relate to this specific story, my take away has always been that grieving can and always will be extremely difficult, but that everything does happen for a reason (as cliche as it sounds) - had this woman never shown up to exhibit her work, she never would have met Bonic who is her closest relation to Leah and Rasual.