Sonder (noun.)

Sonder is the realization that all the people around you have lives full of trials, successes, and excitement much like your own.

Interviewing someone allows you to take a small glimpse into a specific part of their life.

I was privileged enough to see into the life of Clark Gebel, a team member/grand opening trainer at Chick-fil-a. Clark gets a glimpse into the life of every customer he interacts with and he gets roughly 20 seconds to change that person’s day. He has seen people whose family just passed away, people who are moving away, people that are graduating, and people that are stressed. He has a chance to influence them and he seizes that opportunity.

His daily goal is that “Every guest leave in a better mood than what they arrived in.” HE achieves this by using his cherry attitude and wide smile paired, oh-so-nicely, with the words “My pleasure.”

While we may not all get to teach children, or to move to third world countries and build schools, we all have the ability to share a smile and to make someone’s day better because none of us truly know what’s going on in another’s life.

Every moment we spend in conversation with someone is a chance to glimpse into their life and share in that moment with them, interviewing takes it to an even more extreme level.