Christina Perri Was Right, I *Am* Only Human.

They say that we are “only flesh,” as though flesh is so easy to permeate and can’t be broken. If we are only tiny specks of dust in the galaxy, there are a lot of specks with so many different stories.

The human experience is one that encompasses many different facets, including trauma. We are all deeply flawed, in that, our existence is beauty, and pain, and everything in between. I know suffering, I know thriving. I know heartache, I know a full heart.

As I try to move through some of the deeply painful and negative experiences I’ve been through, I am reminded of my humanity in all of it. I was a human when that person violated my body. I was breathing when that person lied about me and tried to hurt my feelings. I was a person when I learned that my uncle was murdered, and even when another uncle died of a heart attack six months later.

I was a person when I won that writer’s award when I was 10, when I graduated from High School, when I gave my first lecture, when I fell in love. I still have a lot of humanity left to experience. I don’t know what lies ahead, but I know that I will still be a human through it all — good, bad, or indifferent, win, lose, or draw. Even when I’m not sure where I can find purpose and meaning in my life, I will still have blood in my veins. And I’m learning to accept and experience the beauty of life, of being a human.

(taken from a journal entry, circa 2024)