Empathy In Charlie Vanos 'Poem I, Too'

Empathy. What is empathy? Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. What would life be without it? Without empathy we would see others as objects, we couldn’t understand what they're feeling, or share their emotions. Although we are human, and we do have emotions, some of us lack empathy. We judge others on a daily basis. We feel like if we are not above someone else, what value do we have?

We compare our lives to others, constantly thinking about how much better your’s could be. We see photos and people posting about their picture-perfect life and we strive to be like them. In the poem, “I, Too” even though he is black, he strives to be equal to everyone else in America. “I, too, sing America. I am the darker
brother.” (Hughus) He does what everyone else does but cannot seem to be like them. Once we cannot reach our goal of being perfect we hate others who seem better, or even begin to hate ourselves. We cannot judge others based on what we see, we as people need to look deeper and see that no one is perfect. Once we realize we are all equal, we’ll began to have more empathy and understand each other more.

For my empathy adventure I went to the Astronomical Society meeting at Weber in Ogden. I know close to nothing about space and technology so I thought this would be good to expose myself to a club of people who love everything about it. Before I even went all I could think was, “Everyone there is probably a nerd and has a profession in science.” This is an actual thought I had. I was so quick to judge without even knowing the people. I was also scared that I would be left out, because i was new and nobody knew me. “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out” (Frost) I feel like i was building a wall around myself to be protected from the unknown, of being rejected.

I had so many fears, i even considered, last minute, to not go at all. I thought of just trying out something easier, and where i could fit in. Fears are what hold people back. I made myself go to the meeting and get over my fears of the unknown.

To my surprise, there was only about 10 people when i first showed up, but through the meeting more people showed up. It was a very small group of people, and my first impression was that they’d all be mid 40’s, but let me tell you. There wasn’t a single person there who wasn’t over 65! I found it crazy, but they were surprisingly very sweet and funny people.

When I first arrived, and everyone was waiting in the hall waiting for it to begin, I met a lady named Lani Walls. Her and everyone else there didn’t seem like a nerd at all! We made jokes as we waited and me and her became acquainted. She told me about how she travels the world, and how she’s been in the club for years. Everyone who talked to me thought i went to the college there because of how young I looked.

My perspective was already changing about these people before the meeting even started. I realized that they were all just there for the same thing, to learn and meet new people. It was a rude awakening for me, i shouldn't judge these people for what they enjoy. Just because they loved astronomy doesn't mean they are nerds or extremely smart. "She would see Arthur Radley escorting me down the sidewalk, as any gentleman would do" (Lee) This shows how people judged Boo because of what they thought to be his back story. However, in reality Boo is actually a very gentle and caring man. I thought that because of what they liked, they must be losers. I soon learned that they are people just like me.

Later on, Lani had made me feel very welcome, asking me to sit with her, discussing topics with me, and talking about our lives.
She was actually extremely interesting, and I didn’t mind being there anymore. The guest speaker that night was named Charlie Vanos. He was a retired engineer for NASA. He talked about how missiles worked and how were improving them, and things that weren’t “classified”.

It was pretty interesting, but it was hard to keep up for 2 hours. Every now and then Lani would talk to me about it, and help it make more sense. She was very kind the whole night. She knew this was not my type of Thursday night out, but she still helped me to feel more welcome.

“The only way I could see to bridge the gap between us was to become a negro.” (Griffin) Only when I stepped into a different environment did I notice that people can all be different, but we are all the same. Sure, they were super smart and understood everything that the speaker was saying, but they were still nice and funny people. They had different interests but we’re all still
human.

In the end I learned that people can show empathy. I learned that I shouldn’t judge people before I get to know them as well. They weren’t stuck up brats, they didn’t taught others with their intelligence, they just made jokes together, and would do anything a group of friends would do. I learned more about empathy than i did missiles that night.

With this whole trimester dedicated to empathy, I feel like I’ve learned a lot of life skills. I still learned Language Arts but i feel like I have something to bring with me for the rest of my life with empathy. I always think before I judge someone, and in the end decide its none of my business and i should get to know them more. I used to look at kids in the hallway and think how weird they were or wonder why they did what they do, but now, I just think that everyone has a reason they act the way they do. Everyone has their own story but were all still human. I feel like this has helped me become a better person.

Without empathy the world would be so cold and unforgiving.
No one would be there for you, it’d be like you’re on your own. People often choose not to show empathy to people who they feel they are above. In the scottsboro boys case, Victoria showed no remorse for the lives she was going to ruin. “The proof tends strongly to show that she knowingly testified falsely in many material aspects of the case.” (Horton) She didn’t have any empathy, and therefore would be considered what we call “evil” Without empathy we’d all be heartless, evil people, like Victoria. Empathy is what makes us able to see how other people feel, and see their
perspective.

Empathy is what hold the world together, and without it we’d all be seperated. No one would see anyone as important to them or of value. We’d all strive to be at the top, and wouldn’t care who we hurt on the way there. Empathy gives our society a balance. Empathy is the root of everything.