“Wander through the lush trails of Atitlán Nature Reserve, where waterfalls, wildlife, and tropical forests surround spectacular views of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala.”
Camera: iPhone 15
Locations: Atitlan Nature Reserve; Panajachel, Guatemala
“After so many lackluster encounters, meeting that rare man or woman who lights you up, is interesting and engaged, can ask questions and hold a conversation, you know you’ve met someone who is a real shot of life.”
Do you remember when you met someone who left such an impression on you that you couldn’t wait to see them again? They give you that shot of life because of how vivacious, entertaining, and lively they are, which have become exceedingly rare qualities these days. We often go through our day-to-day routines around people who are nice but either not very interesting or not very engaging. It could be a dull coworker, a disinterested boss, or a flummoxed stranger who can’t hold a conversation even when it’s about the weather.
After so many lackluster encounters, meeting that rare man or woman who lights you up, is interesting and engaged, can ask questions and hold a conversation, you know you’ve met someone who is a real shot of life. They don’t need to necessarily fulfill the role of a romantic partner or a friend or a colleague but just being around them makes you feel better and they see you as an actual person rather than a means to an end. There’s real light behind their eyes, there is depth to them that you want to uncover, and they can put forth effort into making themselves available to you.
There’s a balance there as you don’t want someone who is lively, but is also not overbearing, not respectful of your boundaries or just takes too many risks that could lead to trouble. There are several qualities to look for in people you should want to be around: curiosity, presence, playfulness, storytelling, humorous, reciprocity, initiative, depth, and vitality. They don’t necessarily need to be extroverted either but it’s more about how they treat you, if they remember you, they make the effort to see you again, and they know that interactions and conversations are not meant to be a monologue.
Being charismatic and making yourself known to others is part of it but it’s also being engaged and taking a normal interaction and making it better. For some examples, it could be the bartender who remembers your birthday if you have been a regular there for years, the woman or man at a dinner party who asks an engaging question about your background, the coworker who cracks a funny joke to you privately about the latest rule at the office, or even the traveler on the road who takes the time to hear your own story after they’ve told you theirs and will react to it with real interest.
A lot of modern life is repetitive and many of our interactions with other people, especially strangers are quite mundane. Most interactions are shallow or don’t happen at all considering how much technology is absorbing our limited attention spans. When somebody comes along and breaks up your routine and lights up your day, you’ll remember them for weeks or months or even years later just because how special it was compared to most other interactions. It’s not even that it was an extraordinary meeting, but it was more about interested that person was, how they made you feel seen, and the depth and realness of the conversation.
When someone takes you out of that loop of emails -> meetings -> screentime -> commuting to focus on them alone, that is powerful and exceedingly rare to have. The ideal is that the ‘real shot of life’ this person gives you is energy without chaos, confidence without arrogance, curiosity without obsession, spontaneity without recklessness, and warmth without neediness. Having a real shot of life someone isn’t about the adrenaline they can give you, it’s about when they make you feel alive and present in the moment.
Perhaps the best thing we can do is try to become a ‘shot of life’ for someone else and they can do the same for you in return by setting the example for them. That doesn’t mean becoming the loudest person in the room, constantly entertaining everyone, or turning yourself into some larger-than-life personality. It means staying curious about the world. It’s about asking questions and listen to the answers. Develop new hobbies and interests in your life. Try new things and learn new things as well. Tell stories and jokes without fear of how they’ll be perceived. Make plans and get outside more often and away from your tech devices.
Be willing to laugh at yourself and your mistakes. Put the phone away and give someone your full attention to be truly present with them. Most importantly, try and remember more about other people you care about and take note of who they are. In a world where so many interactions have become transactional, distracted, or purely obligatory, genuine engagement has become a gift. You never know when someone else might desperately need the little bit of energy, humor, curiosity, or warmth that you have to offer.
Maybe that is ultimately why someone who is a ‘real shot of life’ leaves such a lasting impression on us. They remind us that life doesn’t have to feel like a series of obligations, routines, meetings, errands, and small talk. Occasionally, someone comes along and shakes us out of that rhythm, whether in our hometown or on the road. We talk for hours with them when we expected to talk for twenty minutes. We laugh and joke harder than we have in weeks. We find ourselves looking forward to seeing them again before we’ve even said goodbye.
They don’t necessarily become our best friend, romantic partner, or lifelong companion. Sometimes, they simply pass through our lives for a brief period and leave something memorable behind. For however long they’re there in your life, they make the world feel a little more interesting, a little more connected, and a little more alive. Perhaps that’s the real mark of someone who is a ‘shot of life’: after spending time with them, you walk away feeling more alive yourself.
“Explore a local coffee farm in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala, and discover how coffee is grown, harvested, processed, and prepared in the Lake Atitlán region.”
Camera: iPhone 15
Locations: San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala
“Sadly, this is not an isolated occurrence in the post-COVID world as manners have declined, niceties are becoming rarer, and kind gestures to strangers are less common than before.”
When someone is walking towards you on the sidewalk and you know they’re going to bump into you if you or them don’t change course, what do you do then? In my case, I realize they are in my path as I try to be aware of my surroundings, especially in my city as I’m walking and trying not to be on my phone and I’ll move aside for that person accordingly. While I don’t mind making the gesture myself to avoid a collision with that person unnecessarily, the fact that they don’t make any attempt to move themselves out of our colliding path or at least acknowledge my presence instead of being on their phone or talking to a friend reflects a clear lack of manners and niceties we should expect from one another when in public.
Sadly, this is not an isolated occurrence in the post-COVID world as manners have declined, niceties are becoming rarer, and kind gestures to strangers are less common than before. When you live in a city or an urban area especially, these manners and niceties help make the day much easier even when you’re dealing with a lot more people around you. In rural or suburban areas, the pace is slower and there are fewer people, so these manners are more enforced and easier to take note of than in cities. However, our societal expectations around manners and niceties need a real refresher in terms of what to do and what not to do in public spaces.
I don’t expect the average person to have much awareness of what’s customary and what’s not customary manners wise because it really hasn’t been drilled into them by their family, friends, or even from school or work in years. Therefore, we really must do the basic work again in our own day-to-day lives of setting the example, educating others when feasible, and working towards establishing public service announcements or at least some consistent leadership from those of us who have a bigger microphone or outreach capacity to others.
What are the signs of a lack of manners and niceties these days you may ask? The list is evolving but these are the ones that I was taught never to do and there are some newer ones with technology that have been added to my list as well. When you think of common niceties that make things better for everyone, think about the following examples: not littering, don’t cut the line, don’t have loud conversations in public if you can’t maintain an indoor voice, returning your shopping cart when you’re done using it, saying thank you when someone holds the door or being that person who holds the door for the next person behind you. When it comes to driving a vehicle, never park in the handicapped spot unless you or someone with you is handicapped, not using the HOV lane on the highway if you’re driving by yourself, and not tailgating someone’s vehicle when you can maintain distance from them safely.
In addition, certain behaviors that are encouraged or tolerated now which should go back to being frowned upon again include wearing proper attire out in public like the gym, the airport, or the conference center. Pajamas, athletic wear, and beach wear have their places too but not where they shouldn’t be tolerated for dress. For example, you wouldn’t wear athletic wear to a church like you shouldn’t wear your flip flops to a boardroom meeting, right? Same with pajamas or athletic wear at an airport in my view. You’re flying to Dallas, not going to Planet Fitness for an intense gym session for those of you who may disagree here about the appropriateness of athletic wear.
Beyond that, it’s about being kind and courteous to others by acknowledging their presence, knowing where they are, and both of you moving aside so as not to knock into each other unwittingly because you were on your phone or you just didn’t care to move, which shouldn’t be controversial to prevent from happening. Wearing earphones or headphones at meetings, on the train, or in public is the bare minimum for mature behavior and not a big ask to lower or turn off unwanted noise or music for others around you. It pains me to say this too, but some people today need a refresher course on basic manners and niceties, and it goes even more so for the increased incidences of shoplifting, graffiti, lying while serving in a public role, cheating, and just not being truthful with either your words or your actions.
I understand that no one’s perfect and I have not been the best at times due to looking at my phone while walking, maybe getting in the way of others unnecessarily, or just not being as courteous as I could in public. I can always get better at niceties and manners and so can you. It starts with being aware of yourself, acknowledging others’ presence around you, and learning about what is common courtesy and what is not.
I don’t think it should be controversial to dress properly, move aside for each other on the sidewalk, or be respectful on the road while driving. Without these manners and niceties being consistently observed, it’s an actual sign of societal decline and we will all be worse off for it in the long run. Once these manners and niceties go away, proper behavior becomes rarer and then it’s harder to go to work, to attend school, or to build any trust with other people. Manners and niceties are the foundation of a functioning society, and we could all use refreshers on what that means nowadays.
“Explore stunning photography taken in February 2025 showcasing landscapes from Lake Atitlan in Guatemala where volcanoes surround this magnificent lake.”
Camera: iPhone 15
Locations: Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
“Loss of loved ones and their physical presence leave a gaping hole in our lives never to be replaced. Yes, you can make new friends, establish new loving relationships, but long past are the days from your youth or even adulthood where you can count on a grandparent or even a parent to be there by your side, providing you their unconditional love, support, or encouragement.”
While we all wish for some lasting peace and quiet from time to time to find serenity in a world that becomes more intrusive and invasive. At the same time, we yearn to hear thoughts and voices again of those long lost from our lives. While the wider world can get loud, obtrusive, or downright annoying with its cacophony of sounds and noises, we yearn unsuccessfully for the unique sounds and voices from those who are long gone from this world, never to be heard from again.
Loss of loved ones and their physical presence leave a gaping hole in our lives never to be replaced. Yes, you can make new friends, establish new loving relationships, but long past are the days from your youth or even adulthood where you can count on a grandparent or even a parent to be there by your side, providing you their unconditional love, support, or encouragement.
We may be surrounded by people every day, mostly strangers, maybe a few friends, but our inner world shrinks down further when we lose the people who knew us best. Very few people in this world are there with you from birth or childhood and they can never be replaced once they pass away. When someone you’ve known your whole life goes away, it leaves a deep empty feeling and a kind of quiet that sustains just how a big loss it was from your immediate world. Memories and mementos help to ease the pain, but they are only a poor substitute or a shadow at best when it comes to establishing just how much they meant to your life.
How does one deal with the huge void that your loved one left when they passed? Well, I don’t have any easy answer here, but it’s important to do your best to think about how they would see you now that they are gone, what they would think about your life now even though they’re no longer there with you, and how would you honor their memory as best as you can with what you shared with them during your time together. Telling their story to others, putting yourself out there to establish new friendships or relationships, and preventing yourself from isolating yourself further from the wider world are all good ways to move forward even if the quiet remains when you can no longer talk to them or hear their voice.
Perhaps that is one of the stranger realities of getting older: the world around us may become larger, while our immediate world becomes smaller. We meet new people, travel to new places, build careers, fall in love, make friends, and create lives that our younger selves could never have imagined. Yet there are certain people from our earlier days who belong to a part of our story that no one else can ever occupy. We may have known them 20, 30, 40 years or so from our life’s beginning but they don’t get to see how the second half of our lives play out without them there to guide or help us. When they are gone, we don’t simply lose a person who was special to us. We lose one of the voices and presences that helped make our world feel like home.
Maybe the goal, then, isn’t to eliminate the quiet that remains. Maybe it is to learn how to live alongside it. To carry the stories, habits, humor, lessons, and memories of those we’ve lost into the lives we are still living. The quiet is painful because it reminds us that something precious is missing, but it is also evidence that something precious was once there. Perhaps the best way to honor the beloved people whose voices we can no longer hear is to keep living loudly enough that, in some small way, their influence can still be heard and felt through us.
