Nostalgia, people pleasing, the gift of being needed
Initially I rolled my eyes at the Yakuza video game series bringing back Kiryu (or Kitty, according to autocorrect) after his story was supposedly over. But they've handled his new role and arc wonderfully, heartbreakingly so. By exploring how our actions and words reverberate far beyond us. Learning how turning your back and running away doesn't take from the impact you've made on others. Seeing that your life doesn't belong to just you but everyone around you, too. Realizing that you can't say simple things about yourself - your favorite food, song, season - because you've lived only for others. Keeping awake at night to remember, to weep, to hope, to rinse and repeat.
I'm not much of a people pleaser anymore, myself. I wonder sometimes if I truly have made a bigger, better impact on others after caring for myself first. If people pleasing was a simple black and white dichotomy - only pleasant for a moment, yet enabling and unfair to everyone involved in the long run. I have traded my being a constant-but-not-always-sincere source of validation for someone who doesn't feel that they can offer much at all. But isn't being a trusted, safe person for someone else a gift of its own? What better way to say I love you than to be vulnerable and admit that I want and need you? If you can see me for me, that was intentional and it means something. It means everything - to me, and hopefully to you, too. I wonder, I wonder, I wonder.