Here’s to my Human Experience

Because

Though it’s been different from a lot of the ones of those who are close to me,

Because their families are whole

And they’ve never been hated by their mothers

Or have wanted to die,

Though mine has been a little more painful than most,

I still want to commend it.

 

Because it’s also been easier than that of others (and some parts have been pretty damn good)

And the pain it’s given me is also a really good thing (but that concept is for another time)

 

Because:

I’ve learned that I am not special—

I’m a four on the enneagram, along with millions of other people

I’m an ENFP on the Meyers’ Briggs, along with millions of other people

I like photography, like millions of other people

I like reading, like millions of other people

I like learning and knowing things, like millions of other people

My personality is nothing special.

My fears are nothing special.

The way I view the world is nothing special.

I am nothing special.

 

But my Human Experience is something special.

 

What I have been through,

The life I have lived,

The decisions I have made,

Everything I have felt,

Cannot be perfectly replicated.

 

I am ordinary but my life is sacred,

For it cannot be recreated.

 

So sure, I may have learned that a marriage without divorce is idealistic,

And I may have grown up with a couple of alcoholic parents,

And I might have lost a few potential siblings along the way,

And watched my grandma die of cancer,

And let myself be abused by the people closest to me because that’s what I deserve,

And almost killed myself a few times,

Among the other things 

(Some of these “other things” were also good; I don’t want to fail to recognize this)

 

But

 

All of that’s mine and solely mine

The pain and the suppression and the processing and the gain and the loss

No one else in the entire planet has lived this life, my life

 

Here’s my point:

I myself might not be original,

Which is why I commend my Human Experience,

Because though we as people are rut within the rut,

Each and every person’s Human Experience is unique.

Inimitable.

The only truly sacred existence,

Unless there is a God (but that’s besides the point),

And therefore should be honored, looked up to—revered

Because no matter how painful, how heartbreaking or good,

Each and every Human Experience is set apart from the others—

That hurt you might feel is special and sacred, even though it, well, hurts.

 

I am not special.

You are not special.

But the lives we have lived are.

 

Cheers! to each and every Human Experience;

Thanks for being an example of originality for us all.