Where does empathy come from?

What is empathy?

Technically speaking, it is “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner”. But what does that mouthful of jumbled words really mean to us?

To be honest, I never really knew what empathy meant. Like many other people, I misconceived the meaning of this word by equating it sympathy and “feeling bad” for someone. I never thought about what it actually means to empathize with someone.

However today in English, I was challenged to look deeper into the meaning of the word empathy and what it means to empathize. Empathy is not the same as sympathy. While sympathy is feeling bad for someone, empathy is feeling for someone. Empathy is being able to put yourself in another’s shoes and feel the emotion they feel.

The real topic we talked about was how does one develop empathy? The class had a variety of opinions. Some people believed that the extent to which someone can empathize is strictly genetic—some people are simply more emotional than others and can empathize easily. Some people that that empathy is developed overtime through your own personal experiences. Others thought that empathy developed at a young age and that techniques for feeling empathy could be taught at a young age. However I am still perplexed by the concept of empathy. How do you think empathy develops in a person?

Other options following high school?

Senior year ends, you graduate high school, you have one short summer left at home, and then off you go onto another chapter of your life—college. Just as one thing ends, another begins. Being a senior in high school right now, it seems like the idea of college is being thrown at me everyday. We talk about it at school, with our counselors, with our friends, and especially with our parents. It seems like going to college is just a given. Everyone goes to college and if you don’t go to college you are dumb.

But why the rush in going to college? Why do we never stop? We are on this fast-moving train with our lives somewhat planned out for us and I think many people, including myself, don’t realize that there our other options out there for us, other paths to take.

Many high school seniors in increasing numbers are looking into the idea of a “gap year”. A gap year is the term for the year off that some students decide to take following their senior year of high school. However there are many misconceptions surrounding the term “gap year”. Many parents stray away from the idea and it is often thought of as just a way to procrastinate college, avoid applications, or sit around for a year and be lazy. However, most students use this year to take time to travel, volunteer, or study abroad. It is not just a way to avoid college—most continue with college applications. Many colleges are supportive of beneficial and productive “gap years” and will offer the option for students to defer admission for a year. So why take a gap year? What’s the point?

The real issue is, how many people are truly ready for college when they graduate high school? Very few people actually know what they want to major in and what they want to do. In fact, very few people even know what majors are out there and what types of jobs can be acquired from different majors. On the one hand, that’s what college is for: trying on different things to see what fits. But on the other hand sending a confused and un-prepared kid to college is like sending a kid who’s not very hungry to an all you can eat buffet. Although a gap year is not right for everyone, for some students it could be a chance to take a break from the intense pressure of high school and to take a step back and think about what you really want to do with your life. (link)