Collector of People

One of my favorite sites is Elephant Journal because of its great content. They write about love, astrology, yoga, healthy eating and whatnot. My favorite section is the relationship section, which refers to all kinds of relationships, not only romantic ones. The reason I love it is because of its beautiful and powerful writing style. Articles speak to my soul and I feel deeply connected to the words, as if they were curated just for me.

The other day I stumbled upon an article called “The People Collector” (http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/12/the-people-collector/) and I fell in love with it.

After reading this article, I told myself “you know what, maybe I am indeed a people collector”, but the idea of collecting people sounds terrible, right? It sounds as if people were objects you put behind a glass cabinet or like trophies, the more you have, the better or more popular. But, no. I see myself as a fanatic or a true collector. Take for example a butterfly collector, for him every new butterfly he adds to his collection is precious. Every new butterfly is a missing piece of the puzzle and that’s how I see people. People are the missing pieces of my life. Each person is valuable and has a special place in my chest. What makes them so different from objects, is that people teach us new things, make us feel all kinds of emotions, and have the ability to bring to light things that we didn't know existed within us. People transform us, modify us, and mold us. People are the pieces, the building blocks; We are the complete puzzle, the big picture.

As every everything we collect, there are the common backyard butterflies and the overly-repeated stickers for the World Cup album. And as much as we do not care about them, they still have a place in our collection. But there are also the limited editions and the very rare ones. The ones in a million, the ones we would give everything for, the ones we hold in a special place, the ones we wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.

And that’s life. We get our little packet of stickers and we never know what is inside. It is likely that we’ll get repeated stickers that no longer fit in our albums, but sometimes we are lucky enough to get the glittery/hologram special edition stickers, the ones we were waiting for all along. 

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2015 was the best year. I met and re-met beautiful people, who in no time became great friends. They are the reason I know that friendship (and relationships of any kind) doesn’t have a time tag. You see, there are people who you meet in one day and you just know. The way they speak, the way they battle their demons, the way they manage themselves through life and how they simply inspire you to be better, is pure magic. I learned you have to cherish these people like your most precious treasure because people like them are not easy to find. 

I also learned that people will leave from your life, not because they are abandoning you, but because they are starting something new. It is a good-luck goodbye, a temporary goodbye, a goodbye that stings just a little because there is not doubt you will meet again. They will forever live and stay as long as you carry their love, their care, their stories and everything they have taught you. No matter how far apart you are, you will always have each other in mind and heart. 

Dedicated to: Lina Azain, Hyder Alkhalifah, Isabelle Orozco, Ni Yang, Kahing Choi, Richie Buell, María Amalia Pérez, and Gian Tolin ~ people who have permanently marked my life and made 2015 an awesome year. They are, of course, my glittery special edition stickers.  

**Never forget people will come and go, just a tiny few will manage to stay forever.