Sympathy is the ability to care and understand the suffering of another person, while empathy is the ability to experience the feelings of another person. As you can tell, one has a stronger emotional connection than the other. Before you speak to someone, *virtually* put your feet into their shoes, walk a couple of steps, put yours back on, and then speak. Everyone is fighting a battle that you’re not aware of. In the case of my students, I had a very good feel of their battles (both mentally and academically), as I used to be a struggling, lonely, first-year student once. This allowed me to connect with the students very easily, and become more of a friend than a teacher.
