The window in my room of my second-floor apartment gives me an unparalleled view of the street and all its visitors. Aside from the red-bricked buildings and revving cars, my window shows me people: students going about their day with music soundtracking their lives or engaged in excited chatter with their friends. I often find my eyes subconsciously wandering to the barrier that separates my room from the outside world, happily sacrificing my latest assignment to engage in my favorite pastime: people watching. 

In my Arcadian dream, everyone is spending their best days basking in the Los Angeles heat. But the bleak reality is that for all the times I’ve seen long distance best friends jump into each other’s arms and couples giggling over TikToks they relate to, I’ve also seen a girl reigning back a tsunami of tears and numerous falls off skateboards that end in a string of abhorrent curses.

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With every such interaction, I am compelled to become more cognizant of the solidarity I feel with my fellow Trojans. Perhaps I relish the knowledge that the tornado of isolation and exhaustion isn’t just mine to feel. Maybe I no longer have to carry the burden of a bad day all alone. 

I see versions of myself cramming for a test at Leavey Library, buying Christmas decorations in the Target line — even though it’s barely November — and linking arms with friends when trying to move through a frat party crowd that will swallow them whole. Seeing the repertoire of actions that I’m so familiar with using myself mirrored by others builds a sense of camaraderie, an understanding that we are not all that different from each other. 

We often get so lost in our own lives and minds, trying to chart paths to navigate our trickiest situations, that we forget there are others in the same boat as us, wrestling and battling their toughest challenges yet. Sometimes, the reassurance that we are seldom the sole person facing our struggles is all that we really need.

As comforting as people watching is, it’s also entertaining. It’s a good endeavor to embark on if you’re in need of a laugh or if you just want to romanticize your life. Some conversations I’ve overheard have turned around a bad mood or attitude. I smirk over a matcha at a funny comment or sympathize with others over their most recent heartbreak. 

As I expose myself to new people, I realize how truly insignificant some of my problems are, how small I am in the grand scheme of things. Course registration is not the armageddon I make it out to be in my head, and being left on “delivered” is not actually a monster I should be fearing.

So I encourage you, if you are ever feeling like your problems are insurmountable, to take a breath and look around. I promise you that girl over there has also not started her essay. That guy probably hasn’t done his chores either. Those two friends in the back of your classroom are just as confused as you.  

Maybe when we get overwhelmingly wrapped up in our own lives, we can look up from our laptop and close that textbook for just a few seconds to assure ourselves of our togetherness. Maybe when we contend with our anxieties, we can remember that, just a foot away from us, sipping coffee from a Starbucks cup, is another student striving to reconcile the same joys and problems we are.