My senior year of high school I went on a religious retreat called Kairos. It’s a four day long completely immersive retreat. By the time I got back home, I felt like a completely different person. I can honestly say it was one of the most incredible experiences of my four years in high school.

My four days on Kairos made me realize how little I truly know about the people around me. As humans sometimes we become so engulfed by our own lives that we fail to realize that others around us are also on a journey. We forget that people around us are also living deep lives. They are facing struggles, experiencing joy, feeling confusion. Every day we all experience a wide variety of emotions but we get so caught up in the stress of the present moment that we forget that simple fact.

Often times we treat those around us as though they aren't fellow human beings. We forget that they too are living lives as deep, difficult, and ultimately beautiful as ours. No human is perfect. We get angry and lash out at total strangers while driving home during rush hour, or we gossip about someone we barely even know simply because a friend brings it up. We judge before getting to know one another deeply. We judge each other based on political views or even religious beliefs. We form opinions when we know too little and act like we know too much.

Now, though this is human nature, it's a potentially harmful aspect of it. Almost everyone I know is afraid of being smacked with a label by society -- whether it’s fat, gay, ugly, stupid, slutty, or anything else, we fear what society’s opinion of us will be. This fear is affecting almost everyone -- it changes the ways we think and behave and even our perceptions of ourselves.

We as a modern society have stopped seeing ourselves as humans. We forget that we have flaws and make mistakes and are far from being perfect. We have become perfectionists in the most dangerous form. We strive to rid ourselves of little flaws but we fail to realize that those seemingly obnoxious little flaws are what make us human. We try to pretend issues like mental health or poverty or injustice don't exist in our world.

Its a wonderful thing to look for the beauty in life, but we mustn't let that keep us from acknowledging our mistakes and the difficulties around us. By covering up our little flaws and imperfections, we take one little step further and further away from our humanity.

As someone with depression, I always feared that my friends would distance themselves from me because they, “won't want to be around a sad person.” I let this mentality take over and it caused a lot of my relationships -- romantic and otherwise -- to suffer. I always thought that if I explained to them what I was experiencing I would be seen as weak or fragile. I’d be lying if I said my depression has never caused a loss in my life. Whether it's in terms of academics, athletics, or friendships, depression has had an enormous impact on my life. But we as a society have allowed it to have such a negative impact. If we give ourselves and each other more opportunity to be downright human, we could be spared so much of the negativity in our world.

It’s OK to ask for help or to feel depressed or just have a rough time in general. We are human beings. Now, repeat after me: We. Are. Human. Beings. As such, it is OK to not be OK or to be anything other than perfect. We make mistakes, we have highs and lows, we have flaws. If everyone on this earth allowed themselves to recognize their own humanity as well as that of others, many of the issues we face in our world today would cease to exist. I encourage you to take little steps throughout the day to remind yourself of the fact that you are human. Nothing more and nothing less. Simply human.