Dear James, 

I’m supposed to write a weekly opinion column for The Daily Northwestern. My first piece is due tonight, and I still don’t have any ideas for how to introduce it! What should I do? 

– James

It seems only fitting that the first reader whom I should give advice to would be myself. After all, I already receive a constant feed of counseling from the interior of my own mind — suggestions which are, in my distorted perception, often acceptable. 

For instance, there was the decision to write this column, which I would definitely categorize in the “passable” to “pretty good” range. 

So do not fear, James-of-the-past, James-of-the-present’s got everything figured out. Or, at least, he’s so persistent in insisting that he does that he’s started to believe it. 

I first got the idea to run an advice column a few months ago, while partaking in the very journalism major act of scrolling through The New York Times in class. While tracing a familiar path to the Connections page, I was stopped by an unfamiliar article: a query from a reader asking for advice on how to deal with her aging mother who refused to give up driving. 

The story immediately intrigued me, and I spent the rest of class looking through it. In responding directly to interesting moral and social issues, the piece had  humanity, a down-to-earth sensibility which made me consider — and concede the truth of — several different sides of any given dispute. 

I could put myself in the inquirer’s shoes, and it made me wonder how I would choose to walk. 

Once I started to think about it, I saw similar situations everywhere. Friends toss and turn about their love lives, burnt-out students feel lost in the swirling tempest of highly competitive academic environments and people in all stages of their careers grapple to reconcile their goals with rejection and stress. 

Nearly everyone struggles from time to time with their finances, friends and family members. So why is it that these personal issues often feel so taboo to discuss? Have we, as Americans and Northwestern students, become too comfortable masquerading as  glossy, social media-ready versions of ourselves? Have we, in our single-minded pursuit of success, discarded the role of the community around us in providing day-to-day support? 

It’s easy to write columns like these off, to argue that their focus is too small, that the problems invoked are too pedestrian to be given serious attention. Certainly, an advice column query has little in common with a hard news headline, yet I believe there is a deep value regardless. 

Go out onto Sheridan Road right now. Watch the passerby — the seemingly thoughtless way they move. Every person you see carries with them a captivating and indelible story which you will likely never know. 

Everyone is as absorbed with their own perplexing, fascinating worlds as you are. 

This concept, dubbed by the internet in recent years as “sonder,” is what ultimately fascinates me. Through this column, I hope to write about and explore this idea as well as facilitate a discussion about the larger principles which shape our everyday decisions.

Topics can be serious, light, confusing or even intentionally silly, but my goal is to respond to every submission in a genuine way — I often find that it is the most unusual situations which hold the most fascinating kernels of truth because they force us to confront an outcome which we have not already predetermined. 

After 20 years on this planet, I’ve found myself in a number of awkward, improbable and joyous situations. 

I understand how strange, beautiful and full this life is. 

I want to share a piece of that life and some of the lessons it has taught me. I hope you all will join me and consider sharing a piece of yours. 

If you are interested in submitting to “Ask a Wildcat,” please fill out a short query here or submit directly to [email protected].

James Frazier-Wilson is a Medill sophomore. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.