Human relationships are like chemical compounds: some people, just like chemical elements, go well together, and some - don’t. Just like hydrogen, when linked to oxygen, can turn into water, which is the source of life, a man and a woman, when living in harmony, they can create a new human being. Magic? Maybe just a little bit. But it’s mostly the mother nature who decided the things to be this way. And in the same time, that same nature allows that when you link certain elements together - they can constitute a dangerous compound, a chemical bomb, a killing weapon. It’s not magic anymore, it’s reality.
It is basically impossible to go through life alone. It is inevitable to be dependent on somebody or have somebody depend on us at some point or the other. The world is not a bunch of closed boxes, one box for one person, completely disconnected, with no attachment whatsoever. The environment we live in is a web of complex interconnections, where two people meet, connect, stay together and then separate. And this happens every minute of every day, at every corner of the street in every city in the world.
The first relationship we ever experience in life is with our parents. They are our first friends, first teachers, first role-models. Or maybe not. Unfortunately, not everybody is lucky to be born into a loving family, where husband and wife respect each other. Maybe your father was an alcoholic and your mother was never there, staying late in the office just to avoid the burden of her wife and mother duties. But still, having experienced that kind of childhood, at least we know what family model we do not want to replicate in our future adult life. We learn the lesson the hard way, but at least we learn it.
Then we go to school, and to a university. We make friends, but we also make our first enemies, we learn what it is to collaborate and to compete with each other. We meet our first sweetheart, then the second one, and another, and another one… We keep seeking that one true love until we finally find it. Or we don’t. We might also give up at some point and tell ourselves: the best things in life are the ones you don’t actually look for, but they will surely come when the time is right. And believe me, sooner or later, they do come and hit you by surprise, and then there is no way back. Because actually you do not want to go back where you were anymore.
The moment you enter the workforce, the real-life roller-coaster becomes your daily routine. Whatever you learned back at school about people and relationships, has now grown in power. You are careful in choosing your allies and giving trust, you put filters around you so that nobody comes to harm you. First you are lucky to have a manager who will lead you and make you grow, and then you get a boss who lacks self-confidence and spills all her frustrations on you. And then you thrive and become a leader yourself. A good leader. One that people want to follow and want to learn from.
Life is a journey… Once we embark on it, we may never know how long it will last. We only know we would like it to continue as long as possible. And at each stage of that journey we get linked to other people. All those relationships shape us, define us, they make us - us. Every person we meet has something to offer, she is there for a reason, and we should accept that gift, whether it is good or bad...
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