The Gift of Perspectives

    At the beginning of the semester, I was at the coffee shop on campus, waiting for my friend and teaching

assistant for our EN 101 class to meet me. When she came, she said, "Close your eyes," "Okay," I responded.

I closed my eyes and opened my hands to receive a gift bag. When I opened my eyes, I found two books inside.

    When I found that they were written in Spanish, I got excited because it had been such a long time since

I had read a book in Spanish. And they are small books, so how hard could it be to read and finish them?

But, when she explained to me that they were books from a close friend, I was even more excited. I felt loved

because my friend, Juliana, and her husband wanted to give me these books that meant a lot to them. And that

meant a lot to me. 

Reading in the park!

If you would like to read it, it is available on Kindle!

       I started reading the book, "Historias para almas sensibles," meaning stories for sensitive souls, when I

wanted to do something relaxing after studying. In the prologue, the author, Yury J. Sandoval Rosas, describes

her purpose behind writing the book. She explains that she discovered the meaning of what it is to be a Highly

Sensitive Person. I wasn't familiar with the term in Spanish, so I looked it up. I realized that this wasn't too far

from what I know and having been learning lately. I found that this refers to a neurodivergent individual who is highly sensitive to physical, emotional, or social stimuli. In her prologue, Yury says,

"La comprensión de las personas altamente sensibles me llevó a aceptar que estamos dotadas de capacidades

por explorar y desarrollar, a cuáles no pude seguir resistiéndome " explaining that she came to understand that

the ability to explore and grow differently is a gift that we have been given. I love this. Especially the word,

"dotado," or, "gifted." God has given us the gift of having many different ways to think and see the world. I truly

think of it as a gift. And I think it's beautiful. 

     I can relate to this because sometimes I feel like I think differently compared to others because I've been told

that I am reflective and introspective. But, I also think of my boyfriend, who is highly sensitive. I have been

learning and understanding more of how he processes things and how we can communicate better. That's why

this topic is actually not very new to me. I've actually been experiencing it and learning about it a lot lately. 

    Through conversations, dance lessons, cooking, studying, social events, Josiah andI have found that we are

very different from each other. I overthink in social situations, whereas he might not see the social cues in those

situations to think so much about them. He likes to listen to music with lyrics while he studies, but I get distracted

by the words while I am doing schoolwork. During dance lessons, I focus on the rhythm of the music. While I am

counting the rhythm before the song, he is thinking about his mental map of the steps that we are about to do.

When we are playing a game with family or friends, he is trying to figure out which strategies are the best to

reach our goal to win, but I am taking note of the laughter or tension of the other people there playing the game

with us. We are very different. Every day I learn how to best communicate with him and be there for him. And I

love that he wants to learn to understand me too. 

    I think it is beautiful that we all have different perspectives on life because we can all learn from each other

and how to best understand and communicate with each other. That's one of the many reasons why I am glad that

I am with my Josiah. Is it hard? Yeah. But it's worth it. 

    I am glad that I’ve been reading this book that my friends from Colombia gave me, and I’m excited to

continue reading it. It is so well-written so far as I have gotten to. Yury’s writing style is descriptive and

intriguing. The book consists of several short stories, some of which have had plot twists, which leave the

reader to infer what happens. Seriously, the first one left me thinking, “wait, what?” Also, she left me a note

inside, and I love that. ( :

            A relevant verse from James… because I am thankful for our faithful God, who gives such perfect gifts,

whether it is as small as a couple of books, or various perspectives on life.

    “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not

change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17

~Kthnxbai!