what makes us human?

On what runs through our veins beyond blood.

Flesh and bone. a delicate cage of ribs guarding a heart that beats about seventy times a minute without us ever asking it to. Neurons firing in tangled electric highways and lungs pulling in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide in a rhythm older than memory. We are the spines that let us stand upright, the opposable thumbs that let us grip, and the minds complex enough to build, destroy, and build again.

Strip us down to our anatomy, and we are all but a collection of cells following the instructions written in strands of DNA and yet. pure survival has never been what we were made for.

We were not designed simply to function, to move through this world unfazed and untouched. We were made to create. To love and to live. To hear a melody and feel it in our bones, to press our hands into wet cement just to say “i was here”, to love so fiercely that it undoes us. A machine exists, so does a body. but a human was meant to live

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A baby laughs for the first time, a sound so pure and light that the whole world stops for just a moment. The parents freeze, eyes wide and hearts so full they could burst. And in that instant, nothing else matters. Just proof that joy, in its simplest form, really does exist.

A student hears their name called in class. Heat rushes to their face. The answer is on the tip of their tongue, but their mind has gone blank. The silence stretches. The weight of a dozen eyes settles on them, expectant. A feeling older than fear itself, the terror of being seen.

A football player stands at the penalty line, the weight of the moment pressing heavily on their chest. The world around them, fading. No crowd, no noise, just the rhythmic pounding of their heart. And in that moment, when he takes the shot, for a split second before the ball finds its fate, thousands of people hold their breaths at the exact same time.

What defines us? It isn’t just the way we walk upright or the way our minds build cities or send rockets into space. It’s this. The tiny, fleeting, electric moments of living, the laughter that spreads like wildfire, the nervous breath before speaking, the way we exist together, even in silence, even in seconds.

we are not just flesh and neurone. we are stories and laughter, heartbreak and fear, hope and love. all woven together in this endless, messy, incredible experience of being human.

Dead poets society (1989)

What makes us human?

Maybe it’s the way our hearts race before we say I love you for the first time. The way our voices tremble when we stand before a crowd, throat tight and hands shaking. The way we sing even when no one is listening, cry even when no one is watching, dream even when we have no reason to believe those dreams will come true.

Maybe it’s the way we reach for each other. How, without thinking, we squeeze a friend’s hand under the table when their voice shakes. How, even in the dark, even in silence, we can sense when someone we love is near. The way we hold hands at funerals, laugh until we can’t breathe, touch the names on gravestones like they might touch back.

It’s the way we ache. For love, for purpose, for something we can’t always name. The way a song can take us back to a moment long gone, how a scent can make time collapse. The way we hold onto the past even as we rush toward the future.

A machine can answer a question. A machine can generate words that sound like love, like grief, like longing. But a machine does not long. It does not ache. It does not look at the night sky and feel small and infinite all at once.

We do.

We are human because we feel, because we hope, because we break and still find the strength to begin again. We are human because we chase meaning, even when we don’t understand why. Because we search for each other in a world that keeps trying to pull us apart.

We write sonnets for our love that has long since left. We build monuments for those who will never see them. We whisper our wishes to the universe, hoping someone might hear them. We dream because to be human is to never be content with merely existing; it is to always, always search for something more.

And when we hear a baby’s laugh, we don’t just hear it; We catch it, cradle it, and carry it with us long after the sound is gone.

That’s what makes us human.

a scene from what is perhaps my favourite film of all time.

At our core, we are social creatures. From the very beginning, our survival has depended on connection. We are hardwired to seek companionship, to read emotions in each other’s faces, to instinctively comfort those in distress. Studies in evolutionary psychology suggest that empathy isn’t just a moral ideal; it’s a survival trait. Our ancestors who formed strong bonds and who looked out for one another were often the ones who thrived. Loneliness, on the other hand, was a death sentence.

Even our biology reflects this. The brain releases oxytocin, the so called "love hormone," not just in moments of romance, but in the simplest acts of connection. A hug, petting a cat, a reassuring touch. Our nervous systems are literally wired for co-regulation. Like the way you start to breathe a little easier when someone holds your hand. We are built to respond to each other, to find safety in presence, to heal through connection.

This current rise of nonchalance and lack of empathy all around us quite literally goes against our nature. All of a sudden it’s so cool not to care, and basic kindness is somehow a sign of weakness.

We live in a time where apathy is mistaken for strength and vulnerability is something to mock. People are lonelier than ever, and yet we pretend that needing each other is some horrible flaw. We call it self-preservation, but it’s isolation in disguise. This whole cultural shift towards this “Every man for himself” or “It’s not my problem what other people are going through” mentality is so detrimental and starves us from what we require most, love and connection. Humans were never meant to move through life indifferently, never meant to live behind emotional walls so high no one can reach us.

It’s such a foreign concept now that genuine acts of kindness seem so unfamiliar to people. Compliments are so hard to give and to receive. Showing common decency to fellow human beings is somehow weird and "doing too much” all of a sudden. I have this thing where I somehow must befriend just about everyone I meet. Talking to people like we’re already friends, as if we’ve known each other forever, is a force of habit at this point. Because that’s how i’ve always done it. The idea of specifically not being nice to someone solely because you dont “know” them is such a weird mindset to have if you think about it.

I remember being out with a friend at this big event, and i struck up a conversation with quite a lovely and interesting lady at one of the food trucks. Casual and easy, until my friend looks at me after, half laughing and confused after clocking the fact that we infact do not know each other, “Do you just talk to everyone?” As if what had happened was something completely unheard of. But I don’t know, isn’t talking to people kind of the whole point? Aren’t you supposed to communicate as opposed to staying reserved and not giving anyone the time of day because it’s “none of your concern”?

The first steps to being human (in my opinion, might I add) is to care and to be kind and to feel. There’s no use in being kind or attempting to do so if you’re not going to allow yourself to feel anything. Being nonchalant and numb is easy. It’s safe. But it’s not human.

You were made to live. You were made to care and to embrace. Enough with this dispassionate mindset. Tell the people you love that you love them. Not when it’s convenient, not when it’s expected, but now, while you can. Hold onto your humanity, to the rawness of feeling, to the very ache of being alive. Be present and feel everything. Let joy consume you and sorrow shape you. Allow yourself to feel your stomach cramping up as you laugh. Let your eyes sting as they let out tears. Feel the chill as it carries up your spine when you lock eyes with that person. Live and live and live. Live like your life depends on it because, quite frankly, it does.

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Hiii!! how is everyone doing? i’ve been writing so much as of recent, but absolutely none of it is even remotely coherent. nevertheless, this topic is one i could go on and on about, specifically the carelessness with which we’re moving forward and the way we’re treating people like they’re disposable. In a world insisting on apathy, I hope reading this made you think. even just a little. i’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject!!! Thank you so much for reading! i love you <3