I’ve been a lover of humanity ever since I was young. I always wanted to be adventuring outside, bare feet to the ground so I was more closely connected to the earth. I walked alongside my grandmother while she watered the flowers and spread seeds for the birds because although they didn’t look like us, I was taught to love them too.

In public places, I like to watch people passing by. I always wondered where they were going or what they were thinking, or who they missed. I’ve always been fascinated by the human mind and how each one is unique in its own personal, jumbled, messy way. This is the fascination that leads me to want to know every single one of them.

I am a walking image of every person who has raised me.

I have my grandmother’s hands that never stop giving to all inhabitants of this world, human, and animal.

I have my grandfather’s soul of a warrior, who was taught to protect and serve all those in his pack, leaving no man behind no matter the danger or the damage.

I have my mother’s heart that only ever beats to the sync of others, and aches at the feeling of other people’s pain.

I have been told that I was “too soft”, “too innocent”, “too gentle” for the world - that all of the evil that it inhabits would eventually ruin me purely because I am a believer in the good. But I have seen evil, and I have felt pain. I have seen the effects that addiction has on a family, and I have felt the ache of disease taking away somebody that you love. I have lived through the times where terrorism wandered through school hallways and ran down the streets of the places we call home.

I have given meals to people who have gone days without, and I have provided a bed for those whose only shelter was the plastic tube in the town park. I have looked the threats of suicide directly in the eye and didn’t look away all night long until it put the blade down. I have written messages so long they could be sewn together into a book and given as a gift of constant reassurance that your anxiety isn’t a bother to me.

In this world, there are prayers that go unanswered and far too many drug overdoses that any small town should ever have to bear. Children are being raised in broken families, and suicide rates in high school students are rising because they are being forced into immediately choosing their futures when at this moment, most of them aren’t even comfortable with the people that they are.

I have been on this earth long enough to know that this is not a perfect world. I have seen addiction, disease, self-harm, and self-hate. I have walked hand-in-hand with the mental impacts of divorce, and I could spot depression dressed up with a smile out of any crowd.

I dare you to tell me what it is about you that causes you to think that you are unlovable. And I promise that I will love you anyway.

I dare you to tell me that one secret that you keep locked inside, and I promise to unlock my chest for both of our secrets to share.

I dare you to tell me about the nights you stayed awake wondering why you weren’t enough to keep your parent's marriage together, and I promise to point out the spot in every one of my family photos where my dad should have been.

I dare you to tell me everything in this world that you are afraid of, and I promise to take your hand so you will never have to handle them alone.

I am still unsure of what my overall purpose in this world is, but I know that I have always bled through other people’s wounds. I have felt enough heartache for every person in this world to have experienced once, yet I would gladly take the pain if your heart were to break twice. I am a lover of humanity, and although I am still trying to figure out what this all means, if you tell me why you think that you are unlovable, I promise I will love you anyway.