We Were Not Born This Way

As we grow older, we slowly begin to forget. Not necessarily who we are. That comes later. At first, we forget what it felt like to be free. We forget what it feels like to laugh without worrying about looking foolish. What it feels like to love without expecting something to go wrong. What it feels like to simply be yourself without constantly trying to protect yourself. And none of this happens by accident. Somewhere along the way, wounds are created. Some small, some deeper. Words, rejection, fears, people who made you close off a little more each time. And without even realizing it, you begin building defenses. At first, those defenses feel necessary. And maybe they are. Because when you’ve been hurt, it makes sense to fear being hurt again. So you learn to be careful. To hold back. To stay in control. To not open up too much. The problem is that after a while, you become so used to living this way that you forget you were not born like this. You forget that once, you were more spontaneous. More alive. Closer to yourself. And then the game begins. A game where everyone is running somewhere. Trying to succeed. Trying to prove something. Trying to gain more. As if we are all playing one giant game of Monopoly, believing that if we collect enough, we will finally feel complete. And yes, maybe for a moment it makes you feel good. But many times, all of this becomes a distraction. A way to avoid truly sitting with yourself. Because when things finally get quiet and you are left alone, everything you’ve been avoiding starts to surface. The fears. The loneliness. The need to feel loved. The need to feel enough. And maybe that is where the real struggle lies. In the fact that most people try so hard not to feel pain, that in the end they distance themselves from joy as well. Little by little, they go numb. At some point, they no longer truly enjoy things. They no longer feel excitement easily. They no longer play. They no longer let themselves go. They simply function. And yet, if you think about it, most of the things that made us feel alive as children were simple. A game. A walk. A summer spent with friends. Laughing until your stomach hurt. You didn’t need that much to feel full inside. So maybe the point is not to become someone else. Maybe the point is to remember. To remember who you were before you became so afraid. Before you started hiding behind roles, achievements, and defenses. To remember what it feels like to play. To love. To truly connect. Because in the end, no matter how much we try to forget it, human beings do not only want to survive. They want to feel alive