The Cougar Review

By Savanna

From the day we were created on this earth, we have always known sorrow; it is the heaviest thing we have ever carried. So why is it our identity that seems the most worn and tainted? Why do we choose to cover up the parts of our heart that are the strongest and leave the weakest parts of our heart up for grabs to those who harm us? Do we not realize the damage it does? How it changes our viewpoint of the earth around us? When did we begin to see growing up as getting rid of every childish part of ourselves? When we stopped lying in the grass or picking pretty flowers? When we stopped chasing the sunset and staying in when it rains? Did we de-normalize the only thing about ourselves that was truly love in our eyes? Or have the standards of others withered our happy moments away with the wind? Who is deciding this for us? When did they say we must live a plain life in the misery that we can no longer experience fun? Who told us the flowers no longer smelled worthy enough? Who told us that dancing in the rain was unacceptable? When did “Let’s go explore somewhere!” become “I don’t feel like going anywhere.” Are we truly living or just surviving? Who is the one controlling our lives?

We should. 

So, instead of waiting for someone else to magically change how you see your world, do it yourself. Nobody is stopping you from being you. Do everything you want in life. Never take this experience of life for granted. Go take that trip like you wanted, and try out for that team. Go to that new food place that opened. Walk into the bookstore and buy the books you’ve meant to read for years. Tell that friend you love her. Give that boy his reason for asking the girl he has a crush on to go out. Be the reason someone else decides to live their life fully as it was meant to be lived. . No matter what the expectations are, no matter if others stare, and no matter what your mind leads you to think. The reason you haven’t been living is because of your mind. You try to conform to the rest of the world to fit in and be “normal.” Instead, embrace the weird. Embrace your heart. And most importantly, embrace your mind.