All of Our Invisible Strings
April 19, 2024
Writer: Claudia Hurst
Editor: Talya Appelbaum
If I were to title my sophomore year of college, I would name it the “Year of Invisible Strings”. After discovering this phenomenon in the fall, my friends and I delegated ourselves as the dispatchers of the so-called “invisible string theory”.
The invisible string theory is the idea that we are currently tied to people and experiences around us, even if we do not recognize their significance yet. Through reflection, we realize that these valuable relationships and important opportunities have existed in parallel to us long before we acknowledged their significance; tied to us like invisible strings that were waiting for their moment to be seen.
There are many ways to interpret the invisible string theory, but it has become a deeply meaningful theme for me through the lens of friendship.
I remember sitting next to the girl in my Spanish class who laughed the loudest at our teacher’s obnoxiously unfunny sense of humor. I recall feeling terrified of my hallmate who showed me the fridge-sized “drink machine” she brought from home. I look back on the time when I sought advice from a faceless mutual friend over Instagram DMs because she seemed far more prepared for this new life than I felt. I remember laughing with the girl who sat on the floor of her dorm room speed-knitting as she attempted to take up a new hobby. I recall eagerly whispering in the back of the Anthropology lecture hall with my classmate who made me feel like we had been friends for life after just one eighty-minute lecture.
While these first impressions may seem insignificant, they were the initial memories I shared with my closest friends. In those moments, I did not recognize the influence these individuals would have on my life; however, I now see that each of these interactions was a part of our invisible strings.
The invisible string theory presents a message of possibility: how wonderful it is to know that there are so many events we will experience in our lives that we are unaware of right now; how wonderful it is to know that there are so many people who will be important to us that we do not even know yet.
This theory is not meant to convince us that our lives have been predestined and that we are simply being pulled by invisible strings. Instead, I see it as an attitude of optimism that reinforces the belief that we are constantly surrounded by meaningful paths.
I will always celebrate my sophomore year of college as the Year of Invisible Strings because it was the time when I first learned to appreciate how small moments have the power to culminate into central aspects of my life. However, I am comforted to know that this is just the beginning; as our strings transform from the invisible to the familiar, there will always be more to uncover.
That is the beautiful thing about possibility - it is limitless
