A symbol of maturity

As defined on the dictionary, Empathy is the action of vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another. In my opinion, to empathize with another, the person must have similar experience before, or else the assumption often turns out to be inexact and you can never understand other’s feeling without undergoing the same experience.

When I was in junior year of high school, looking at the senior student in our school busy studying for the college entrance exam, I thought I could completely empathy with them, I could completely understand their huge stress and anxiety, since though I’m still a junior student, the workload is already crazy and all people around me, my parents, my teachers are telling me how suffering it was be in senior year if I don’t work hard at this time.

However, when I turned into a senior student, I found everything not so similar to what I thought it should be. There is no denying that the year was painstaking, but the actual life is far from just studying. I can sense the stronger relationship between teachers and students and between classmates, supporting and comforting each other. Instead of calling it a suffering year, I would rather say it a rich and heart-warming year.

My point is that it’s hard to empathy with someone unless you had the same kind of experience before. So, I also think empathy is a symbol of maturity.