My name is Lynn Ly. The L’s in my name are parallel. In Geometry, it means those lines will never meet, intersect, touch, or interact in any way or form. Similarly, in my life, I’ve noticed that there are many parallelisms that have struck across my mind.

In my college years, I have walked past an uncountable number of students, faculty, strangers, customers, and our lives align for a moment where we can see each other, notice each other’s presence, but after that, our lives will remain like two parallel lines: continuously going on without any type of interaction. Our paths are not destined to cross – only seen and sometimes, forever forgotten.

In the midst of my commute to my internship, I think about how we, as Southern Californians, constantly take the freeway to get to where we need or desire to be, but what road are we on, if we were to be wholeheartedly honest with ourselves?

Sure, everyone on the 57 is headed towards different places, but perhaps, could it all be for the same reasons? As people park their cars, they could be unconsciously aligning their lives with someone else’s fate. Everyone is working – some to survive, some to provide, and some to pursue their dreams. Deep down, are we really strangers or do we share a human but unfathomable connection? It may be both of those thoughts.

We all have a story and there is never not a story to be told.

What’s your story? Does your story line up to mine?  The possibility that we share something substantial with someone is exciting. But because our lives are parallel, we will never cross paths or be able to interact and that can be quite disheartening because… that’s reality.