Personal Essay: Just Be

This post is a personal essay titled “Just Be.” I wrote this personal essay as a Creative Writing project. It was inspired by several spoken word poems. It’s about love, patience, forgiveness, kindness, breathing, learning, and acknowledgement. I hope you enjoy it, please leave comments below either adding onto this piece or just leaving your own opinion!

Love.
I am in love with life. Love to me is patience. Love is kindness. Love is forgiveness
Patience.
Patience is waiting on your best friend to grow into the person they’re meant to be and understanding that it takes longer than five seconds to grow up.
Kindness.
Kindness is helping strangers know their worth in the world. It is the breath of life, because without kindness life would cease to exist. Life would light a flame of hatred until the world burnt to a crisp of nothingness. So kindness… Kindness, is everything.
Forgiveness.
Forgiveness is knowing that patience and kindness aren’t enough to make the world stop having earthquakes of emotions. It’s understanding that people will have days of deep anger and depression and recognizing that they are not the only one. Forgiveness is saying that what you did was not okay, but I’ve made mistakes too and I want to work it out with you. That is love to me. It is the peace shining through a storm promising that there is still a hope to an end.
Breathe
Breathe in and breathe out, remember that the world does not revolve around you, nor does it revolve around your true love. Let other people in and don’t make them feel uncomfortable with your attachment to your true love. Be friendly and open and seek out the ways in which your true love will remind you that they love you without suffocating and nearby friends.
Love More
It is important to love. Love with all your heart, even on the rough days, even when nothing goes right… Just simply, love. Love your mother, love your father, love the teachers who taught you all of the valuable lessons in life. Love the people who hate you. Let them know that even through their hatred, you still wish for their lives to be better than it is right now. Love your friends who’ve been there for you since first grade and love the new friends who you barely know, but are taking the time out of their lives to know you. Love the homeless, love them in a way that they know they are not forgotten in this world. Lend your ears, lend your hearts, lend your generous souls. Lend it all. Pour love onto strangers by simply saying, “Hello! You look radiant today! I’m glad you exist in this world.” Spread love like the flu. Let it be contagious and full of surprises. Spread love, but don’t forget to let love be passed back onto you. Give out your love, but take it in too.
Learn
Learn that your education is not bound to a building. There are more things to learn in life than just science, math and history. Learn that you are a complex human being with powerful emotions and a beautiful soul and so is everyone else. Your past made you who you are today. Learn that other human beings have a different history than you do. Understand that what makes them different from you is their story. Learn their story. Learn that it is okay to not understand where they are coming from, because you did not come from the same story book. You are a story within your own and what makes you unique is that their story can not be the same. You are copyrighted and marked with the seal of saying “this is me. This is my story. It is all real.”
Acknowledge
Acknowledge that you will not always be right and you will not always be wrong either. Acknowledge that some people have a better grasp on a topic because they’ve spent their whole lives searching for the question that you asked them because it was the same question that they asked themselves when they were younger. Acknowledge that times change. What is right one day may be wrong a few days, months, even years later. Acknowledge that some things are just concretely correct like two plus two is four and rape is wrong. Big difference right? Acknowledge that some things are more important than others and learn to choose what’s worth fighting for.