What living with a dog has taught me about empathy

Guest reflections from Sean

I’ve come a long way on my journey to figure myself out in a time where we haven’t quite made it past this whole “men aren’t very emotional” thing. 1) I have emotions, 2) there are quite a few of them, and 3) things generally work out better if I share them once in a while.

I’m pretty happy with where I’m at now, and it’s more or less functional. Whether or not I’m up to other people’s standard, you’ll have to ask Haley, who is generally emotional enough for the both of us

How I used to feel: Empathy shmempathy

Even as I’ve grown up and made progress in my early twenties, I’d never managed to be that great at empathy.

Up until the last year or two, I thought I was pretty good at understanding someone’s personality and motivations. I could know what emotions they were feeling and why they were acting a certain way.

But I never could feel what they felt.

I could think about the subtleties of psychology that were in play — but I never imagined what it was like to be that other person, experien…