A very close friend of mine always says “any life experience is good life experience”. I suppose that is not something I can argue, though I can’t imagine we know whether or not truth lies in that statement until our lives are complete. I have had quite a few short lived experiences in my life and it cannot be disputed that they each shaped who I am in some way. Whether or not something is ‘good’ for a person is very much a matter of opinion but they have all certainly been experiences and no matter how large or small, I have been affected by each.
Something I have grown quite used to in my limited years is loss. It’s something we all must face eventually. I have lost people, places, memories, and dreams. It is safe to say that everything we ever have, we must lose at some point in our lives. But it seems as though our journeys here are meant to combat that truth. We spend our time searching for a job that will last. A home that will last. A love that will last. The latter, most of all, is the most difficult thing to lose and the hardest to get rid of. Often times, even if we lose a person, the love remains. Like a scar on the span that is our life. Covered by adventure, people, places. But always there, reminding us of what our lives could have been. Of what our lives could be. It’s rather silly to think that we work so hard to obtain and maintain something that breaks us so badly. Without it, we are lost. With it, we live in silent terror that it will kill us. But that bravery is what makes us what we are. Many people believe that our ability to love is what separates us from all other species here. The ability to feel so connected to another person that it seems if we lose them, we lose a part of ourselves. Many animals mate for life and I don’t suppose there’s really any way for us to know if that is love or just nature. Romantic inclinations would lead us to believe the former but I think it is a more primal instinct than that. Beyond this feeling of love or attachment or a simple need to procreate. It comes from a need to make something in our lives stick. Everyday we are given millions of options and every choice we make seems to impact our life. Every experience changes us even in the smallest of ways. Perhaps love is simply a carnal need for stability. The need for just one thing in this world we can’t ever truly lose.
