Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her Ted Talk, the danger of a single story, discusses the dangers of exposing people to one perspective. The example she gives is foreign books that she was exposed to as a child. Ironically, this is something that she characterizes as something universal. And I do think this is something that makes sense. If we think of other countries as different places with different people, sometimes it becomes clear that we do not know what is the truth. We only know the story that is told to us. I think about this when she tells her story in 2009, where I am viewing this story in 2019. I think about how different American University must be, where (when she discusses Authenticity) her professor tells of Africa as if Africans cannot be anything like him. But I am glad to hear how she thinks that we are all a part of this sly catastrophe. Because we are. It is impossible to think that we will ever be able to have more than one cohesive story. But it is a possibility to listen, and listen again to different variations. What is it to be a person? Is it possible to really pinpoint what it is to be a human being? It’s impossible to do. And yet we do it every-day. Give someone a writing utensil and tell them to draw what a person is. You will get varying styles of the person, different sizes and shapes that will constitute the person they think is a person. And when you ask them “what is that?”, they will reply: “that’s a person”. Oh really? you might proceed. You might point to someone else’s drawing and say, why is this also a person then? they look similar but they are a person. Why do they have the same word? the other person will say: oh, idk. And that will be the end. Nobody really has answers, but more or less forms associations as to what they have experienced. It’s a problem with language, but one that we deal with to try to understand each other. And that’s the depressing part of the story. But at the same time, this is what makes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s message so invigorating, because we know that we will try to break through that impossible barrier. Because it’s always interesting to know about someone else’s story, I guess that’s how we might break through. Talk about universal love, a concept that helps bring the most unlikely of people to become closer. I think that’s the idea of a utopia that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is arguing, and I honestly would agree. I wish I could know everyone’s story. I wish I knew how people became the way they were. Because in each of their story is my story, a righteous story of trial and error that lives until it is no longer told. In books, however, they live forever.