Welp. Day two and I am already a little behind. Anyone surprised? Granted I DID wake up at 5am this morning, but then needed to get on the road from Seattle to Portland to be in my community on time. Downside: I didn't get to write on time this morning. Upside: I had three hours in the car to think about all the things I could write.
Realizing. It is happening more and more. I am realizing more. People around me are realizing more. Society seems to be realizing more. Use whatever word you want to use—discovering, becoming, unlearning, learning—for myself the past five years have been filled with revelation of all different magnitudes. Some examples: realizing that Emma Watson and Emma Roberts are not the same person and, in fact, individual human beings; realizing that not all coffee tastes the same; or realizing that people change, our relationships with those people have to change, and that's okay.
But more on those revelations later. For today I want to dive into this actual process of realizing—something so unique, energizing, and human.
First there is most definitely a need for information. My education and work thus far have given me access to knowledge that has expanded my understanding in ways I couldn't have imagined. Teachers and employers have pushed me to realize things about myself and the world, and not only how it works, but where I fit into it. At least where I fit into it for now anyways. I am so thankful for the privilege of both my education and work experience thus far.
And that is next: experience. There are things that I have learned so far in my twenties that I never would have known in the years previous simply because I had not lived through them yet. Success, failure, love, pain, laughter, embarrassment, desire, death... The very experience of being human reveals truths about ourselves, the world, and our relationship with the world that we could never learn at any school or job. And though I am still quite young, life seems to have helped me realize some important truths. Some are my own, some are the world's. For some I am thankful, for others I wish they had not come so soon.
Lastly in realizing one has to be honest. This is so simple, yet so difficult. Sometimes this comes in the form of intellectual honesty or simply: learning. But in other times it takes a great deal of bravery. There is a certain brave honesty that must inform revelation, especially self-revelation. The honesty to accept yourself. To let yourself be wrong, or selfish, or afraid. To change the whisper of your deepest dreams into the loudest scream. The honesty to let yourself love and be loved. Realizing things about the world outside ourselves isn't too hard. It's realizing things about the world inside that can be the most challenging.
As we grow, we realize. As we realize, we grow. Cheers to more growing, and more realizing. And cheers to the information, experience, and brave honesty that molds us along the way.
Keep peace and keep creating,
Parker <3
