"When I was younger I want to be…"
"A lawyer"
"A doctor"
"A teacher"
"A mom"
"Happy"
Notice how the titles all include an "A" before the career. Yes, it is for grammatical reasons, but it is also because by becoming one of these, we are becoming another one. There are hundreds of lawyers, doctors, parents, teachers, but how often do you see a child vocalize their need to be happy?
Now skip a few years into high school. This is where teachers overflow homework so students can adapt to heavy workloads and constantly mutter the words, "You will thank me when you get to college." You always see them specifying the need for success in the classroom, on the field, on the court, through social media, but when do they open the opportunities for internal happiness? When do they challenge you to bring your emotions to light and understand why you are the way you are?
Psychology classes are not required, but a fine art is. It is more important to a school district that I understand how to draw a circle and correctly define a shade of color than it is a necessity to understand the inner-workings of my mind. Sure, there is a 1-week course in biology discussing neuroscience. The kids who actually paid attention to the brief review may remember the hypothalamus and frontal lobe. But what after that?
Why do our bodies hurt, why do we laugh, what nerve is lighting up when we have a thought and why? How do self-fulfilling prophecies affect our everyday life? How is it when we angry, there is negativity surrounding us, but when we are happy, the world is rainbows and unicorns? These are very real questions that we have the answers to, so why are they less important than the Pythagorean theory?
It is because humans have a talent and knack to neglect that build up in our minds which defines our emotions. We will bury down the hurt and pain because something is more important. People will self-medicate, self-diagnose, and evaluate others without actually stopping to understand how it works. It is like having a broken car and pouring gasoline stating, "I know it needs this, so I will just use more of it and it will fix itself". It might sound idiotic on a screen but put in into perspective and think about its effects for a minute. Why would you take depression medication when you don't know the internal works which are leading to your depression? Nothing will get fixed then, it will get bandaged, and in case you haven't noticed, a bandage is a temporary fix.
Music artists will appeal to the needs of their audience. So, is that why so many songs signify heartache? Is that how people cloud themselves away from the shallow volcano of love? You begin by dipping in a signal toe and next thing you know you are hurdling through thousands of miles of warmth and comfort and enjoying every minute of it until you realize how hard the drop hurts. Do we call it "falling in love" because we always get hurt? No, we don't. We use the term falling to symbolize getting up. If you fall and hurt your knee, it is unlikely that you will never walk again, same goes for finding love. When you get your heart broken, you get back up, look at your battle scars, and grow stronger and happier than ever before. You realize your own worth which you would not have seen if it weren't for that individual in your life.
We fall in love so that one day instead of dropping to the ground and scraping our knees, someone will catch us, and that is when you know it is pure and real and something worth fighting to keep.
Just because the world is a scary place doesn't mean we have to let it intimidate us. Smile more, laugh often, and pray to God, to Buddha, to the Sun and Stars, to a chair for all it matters. Pray for eternal happiness and gratitude, because human life has meaning. Whether it be using your hypothalamus to understand everyday tasks, or exploring the endless possibilities, life has meaning. And I can assure you, every tear you shed will bring you another moment of endless smiles, laughing, and joy in the future, so just keep pushing forward and understand why you are the way you are.
When I grow up I will be… Me.
