Thank You, From the Invisible One
Dear everyone (but especially you),
You don’t know who we are. Most people don’t even notice us, we often travel alone. We can be any age, size, shape, color or gender. We can be anyone. We might even be you, the one reading this article right now. We are the invisible ones.
We are not always students either. We are the cafeteria staff, the janitors, and the substitute teacher. We find ourselves stuck on the fringe, caught in the mass of faces that no one takes time to pay attention to. We find ourselves stuck behind the veil of invisible ones.
Getting stuck behind the veil of invisible ones is a lot easier than you might think it would be. So easy in fact that almost everyone has at one point been stuck behind it. That feeling of emptiness that you get when you are talked over and ignored in a group of your friends, or when you say the wrong thing and everyone looks at you like your three-years-old again and spewing fanciful nonsense.
As easy as it is to be an invisible one, it is even easier to become one of the spoken, the seen and the heard. It’s a lot like turning on a light, instantly the light chases the darkness to the crevices of the room. Often it takes no more than a smile from someone in the hallway or a simple greeting, anything to show that someone sees you.
I was once an invisible one, when I first moved to Chariho I tried to start conversations with anyone and everyone. I found however that I wasn’t very good at it. Here in the Chariho community everyone has grown up together, they’ve known each other since middle school and oftentimes much longer. Everyone knows who they get along with, and who they don’t. It isn’t that people aren’t friendly, it’s just that everyone has friends. People aren’t constantly looking to meet new people, so those who are quieter or especially those who are new to the school are often left to fend for themselves. In my search for someone willing to listen, I found those even more invisible than I was, the school staff.
How many people know the names of the very people who serve you every single day? Whether you eat lunch from home or from school, or you never make a mess, you are being served daily by the school’s staff. I mean imagine if the school didn’t have janitors or a cafeteria staff that cared about our school and the students in it. Our school is blessed with a phenomenal staff that care enough about us as students that they spend many hours working to ensure our school is clean, and that we have food to eat. Not to mention each of these members of the staff are brilliant, entertaining and caring individuals with lives outside of this building that often go completely unnoticed.
These staff members are the ones who helped me overcome my invisibility. Honestly, I doubt they know the impact that they truly made on me. I doubt that they even know that they were doing anything out of the ordinary. When I was a sophomore I would often finish my lunch as fast as I could so that I could talk with them, because they were often the only people that I would talk to all day. For those ten minutes, while we were talking, I would feel a little less invisible for a moment. These members of the staff encouraged me to try and talk to some of the students my own age, and over time I gained confidence in myself, I no longer felt invisible.
I still stop and talk for a moment as I walk through the line in the cafeteria. However, I no longer feel so alone at this school. I have friends and people that rely on me. I feel needed. I learned, though, what it feels like to be one of the invisible ones. I have made it my goal to eradicate those feelings of invisibility in the only way that I know how: through the written word.
I know that every single person that I see, on the street, in the halls, in class, they all have something to share. They all have a story worth telling, especially the invisible ones. I want to give them an opportunity to share it. I want them to know that they are interesting and they are important. They can and do make a difference in this world.
I will never forget the influence that these sweet staff members had on me when I was invisible, and I hope that by reading this you might feel encouraged to help others around you feel a little less invisible too. All it takes is a smile, really you never know how much it means to someone until your the one receiving it. To all of the invisible ones out there, know that there is always hope. You will not remain invisible forever. Don’t be afraid to continue to have the courage to continue to speak. Speak up, Speak out, and create your own story. I’ll be here waiting here to read it.
Thank you,
From the Invisible One
