I think in life, we can never go back to become strangers with people that have seen our soul. Why? Because we learned the hard way that to let someone else see the real us, to unfold each and every part of us that is long hidden and kept behind the closed door, is not easy.
To me, opening up to someone is the most challenging thing to do. I don't trust people easily, 'though I can say that I'm an extrovert person. To start the conversations with someone new is never an issue to me, but to open up about everything that I've been trying so hard to hide—that is the trickiest part. Sometimes I just want people to see the bright side of me; the me who always smiles and laughs at everything even the lamest joke, and tend to hide the so-called 'dark' side; the me who stays up late at night, contemplating and wondering about life and the meaning of it. Why? Because just like every human beings, I'm also afraid of rejection. I'm afraid once people see me and not the one that I try to show the world, they will distance themselves because they'd think that the complexity of my thoughts is unbearable. Or they'd simply can't stand me.
That's why, once I let my guards off to a particular person, I don't think I can ever see them as strangers, not even close. In my case, this could happen with long-lost best friend, who is nowhere near at the moment. Maybe because they went study overseas so it's hard to communicate, maybe because they were busy with their current life, or maybe simply because we had a big fight and neither of us brave enough to apologize. This could also happen with particular old lover, whose face I barely remember since it's quite a long time since the last time we bumped into each other. But just like Chbosky wrote in his The Perks of Being a Wallflower (and you're listening to that song and that drive with the people you love most in this world. And in this moment I swear, we are infinite); no matter what happens next in the future, at that one brief moment, you and I both knew that we loved each other and that 'love' is not just wasteful words, and that for once in a long time, we finally trust another living being to see our soul; to see our broken dreams and hopes, to hear about stories we want to forget the most, to understand the depth of our soul.
So, can we really call these people strangers? Can we stare into their eyes long enough and not see the reflection of ourselves there, even just a glimpse? Can we talk to them casually as if they had never hear our loudest scream, never seen our most sorrowful tears? Can we ask them how they have been doing without the desire to ask whether or not they are happy with their lives now, or whether they have made peace with things they used to struggle the most?
I'll take no as the answer. No, I don't think we have the capacity to completely become strangers with people who have seen our soul. I think the only thing that we could do is pretending as if they have became one.
