Mikaela Luke

You’ve probably heard of "sonder." It flooded our feeds as a cliche Instagram caption a few years back. It is, by definition, the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. And it’s also, according to its creator John Koeric, entirely made up.

Oh, Canada.

It started with the weird looks I’d get asking where “the washroom” was. Then it was someone at Cafe 3 telling me “past-a” sounded “nast-y” — “I’d eat pahs-ta, but I’d never eat past-a," she said.

I have come to realize something that you, as a writer, probably know deep down: Your writing needs to see other people.

In the world of grammar, people have their own pet peeves — and, without bias, I often say mine is the most misunderstood on the planet: “myself.”