We don’t have superpowers to please everyone and we don’t have the ability to capture true perfection. It’s impossible to stay humble all of the time, and there is no way we can be honest about everything. There are flaws within our race. And somehow, we have adopted the notion that we and those around us have to strive to be unflawed and unsoiled. Since when is this the stand we hold each other to? What happened to being realistic?

There’s a heart and there’s a head. They don’t always work in perfect cohesion, and they don’t always communicate the same message. Sometimes we follow our hearts into traps and sometimes our heads lead us away from something beautiful. It’s a rare occasion that these two are in sync, and we need to learn that it’s okay that emotion and mentality run on two opposing tracks.

We are going to break down and the colors that don’t necessarily shine the brightest are going to show. But it’s important to understand that everyone has an unsightly color scheme. We must be understanding and compassionate when others are unable to be the best version of themselves.

Apologies are never for the weak. We have begun to hide behind our pride rather than taking responsibility for our actions. Accepting apologies isn’t for the weak either. Showing that we are strong enough to forgive exemplifies character. We don’t have to hide behind our egos and make ourselves seem untouchable. If we would just understand that we all make mistakes and that mistakes mean learning something new, this world would be a more compassionate place.

Loving doesn’t mean we are letting go of our sense of self. It simply means letting someone else in. We are afraid to love because we are afraid for love to fail. But as human beings, we are meant to love many things. It keeps our hearts beating and our lives moving.

We have grown to live with negativity. And, somehow, we have learned to thrive on it. Negativity is fuel for the weak. It’s for those who can’t be entertained by positivity. Negativity is for the bored. Ridding our world with something so toxic starts with one mind. If each mind focused on one extra good thing per day, imagine how much more joyous our world would be.

Sometimes, we hurt the ones we care about. Sometimes, we push people away without even realizing it. We need to learn that the walls we put up only block out amazing experiences. They don’t save us from pain and they don’t save us from conflicting pain on other people. They’re just barriers, and barriers are meant to be knocked down.

We are only human.

We can’t expect that our lives will be laced with perfection. And we can’t put others on an impossible pedestal that they couldn’t possibly live up to. Life is about finding people who make us want to be a better version of ourselves and surrounding every aspect of our lives with those people. Don’t let life pass you by. Don’t let the people you care about walk out of your life and visa-versa. And don’t let yourself be unhappy: life is simply just too short.