Who are we?

It was yet another sleepless night as I stared up at the ceiling in silence. My mind whirled with sentences in foreign languages, and information about our Founding Fathers. I knew then that no sleep would come to soothe my pounding head and burning eyes, but that was no different than usual; I slid out from under the thin sheets I was buried under, finding them much colder than they should have been. Quietly, I padded across my room and sat down beside the radiator that was ticking and banging, but creating a comforting warmth as I looked up and out at the darkened sky outside. I started to think about how worthless my troubles were, and how that one day millions of years from now my stress, and my hard work would all have been for nothing. I started to think about why all this worthless struggle had any meaning at all, and almost like the lights of a car piercing the night air, I finally realized.

I was created out of the same dust, and debris that created the stars, the moon, and the planets. I was created out of the same materials as the universe itself. I breathe the same air as the trees, and the hibernating squirrels, and the birds that sing outside my window at four o’clock in the morning. The universe is the most important creation that has ever been; it was the creation that created all other creation. Without it, nothing would be here; we wouldn’t be here. I started to realize that since we are a part of such an important piece of creation, we must be important too. What would the universe be without the creation it brought with it? I am a part of something much bigger, much more important than anything else that could ever exist. I am part of the universe; we are made of the universe. If that doesn’t make us significant, I don’t know what will.

There are so many people that see humans as being above nature, beyond nature’s laws. If they would take the time to look out their windows and think about the world, they would realize that we aren’t above nature, we are what defines nature. If one believes in such things, we were once something else. Humans were primates, and before that we were reptiles, and if we could trace our heritage back billions of years, we would find ourselves to be plants. We were the basis of what nature developed from. We are the product of development, and evolution, and without us there wouldn’t be anything we have today. The universe would not contain the assets of creation it brought with it. I am a pawn, a key piece in the game of evolution, of development. I am continuing the process of change, and so is everyone else in this universe. We are all products and agents of change, whether we desire to be or not. Each and every one of us are important to the cause of change; without diversity, we would forever be humans, identical, and unchanging. We have grown from plants to insects, from insects to reptiles, and so on, and now we’re part of a new adventure; a new revolution that may take billions of years to complete.

As I sit under the window near the comforting warmth of the radiator, I finally saw why my struggles, and fears were no longer worthless. I am creating a story, a special story that will never be recreated. I am leaving my own unique mark on the universe because I am a part of it. I am made of it. We are changing the universe by making mistakes, and taking chances, and shedding tears, and laughing until we wet ourselves. Each struggle changes the universe because we are the universe. Call me a Modern-Transcendentalist, but if this gives me hope, then it might provide the same feeling for someone else. We are made of the same dust as the Earth, and if one person changes…doesn’t that mean they changed the world? If that’s not something worth living for, I don’t know what is.