What does it mean to have the full picture? Does it mean that you completed the entire thousand piece puzzle? Or does it mean that you finished the border and enough of the inside to infer the empty spaces? A puzzle can be both the most satisfying and most frustrating experience. The feeling you get once you push that last piece in, notches meet and you hear the little snap of the puzzle, clicking into place. And then you can see the bigger picture. But, on the other hand, think about the time of sorting the pieces, filling in the border one by one, sectioning out the picture into digestible sections, until you are five puzzle pieces away. Four, three, two, one, and now your puzzle is missing a piece, only finding out now, at the end of the puzzle.

What if you could apply this idea to life? What if, I wonder, is when you look at someone, do you truly see them or just the pieces that you have with them? Do you see the collection of times that you spent together day after day or just the few memories that you remember? Are people defined by the puzzle pieces of memories that we have of them?

When you see your classmate, do you think of all the times you sat next to each other, barely aware of the other's presence, the shared homework questions, the questions asked when they didn't understand the teacher? Or do you think of that time when you shared a heart to heart about their family who were breaking up?

When you see your best friend, do you think of all the texts you've shared, inside jokes that you've created, forgotten, then remembered again, the countless conversations of each other's love life, the giggles, the bowling scores, pool and birthday parties, the sleepovers that lasted late into the night? Or do you think about that first moment you met them with their overalls on, hidden behind their mother's skirt, introducing themselves in the smallest and shyest voice?

When you see your crush, do you think of all the times you've caught each other's glances, the way they bounce their leg before a test, the same light blue pencil they use over and over again because you gave it to them? Or do you think of the conversation in the stairway during the eight grade school dance because both of you were alone and wanted company? What comes to your mind first?

When we look at people, do we see the few moments, those individual pieces, that we have built with people, or do we see the full picture, carefully built together of those individual pieces to create the long lasting impressions we have of them? What would be the more satisfying puzzle to create?