Reasons Why You're Awesome

Humans. Because you are reading this, I know you are one, and you are awesome. Imagine if the creation of life on Earth took place in 24 hours (actually over 4000 million years). If this was the case, modern humans would have rolled in at 3 minutes to midnight (actually 200 thousand years ago). Why did we show up so late to the party? Did we really waste hundreds of millions of years just gazing into the mirror, making sure our hair was done up perfectly? Metaphorically speaking, yes. But man, does our hair look good. Just look at us, fashionably late and totally awesome. We have evolved nearly perfect, with a highly developed and capable brain. Add this to our physically fit bodies, we are able to do seemingly simple, yet truly astonishing acts like walk, talk, create, love and much much more.

You can walk.

If you can't, I apologize for the generalization. But for the majority of us, walking on two legs is like...wow. I mean, wow! Bipedalism is a uniquely human characteristic. It has allowed for more progress than anyone could imagine. Walking upright is believed to have developed as an adaptation to life in the plains as our early hominid ancestors moved down from the trees and into the savannas in search of more food. Walking has enabled us to inhabit nearly every stretch of the planet, from warm dry deserts, tropical jungles, frozen tundra to isolated islands. Walking upright did another thing to add to our awesomeness. It freed up our manos, that means hands in Spanish. Since then, our hands have been, and still are, the most important tool in our shed.

You can reason.

The ability to reason is an essential part of the sheer awesomeness that humans possess. We are rational beings, capable of coming to conclusions not randomly, but based on well thought-out and guided assumptions. Our brains rely on factors like faith, intuition, our role in society, emotion etc. to help us reason and make decisions instantaneously. It allows us to solve problems with optimum solutions. Our ability to reason is by far the driving force behind the intelligence of humans; and to me, that is pretty awesome.

You make art.

Yes, I have seen the elephant who paints, he is awesome too. But among humans, things like art, music, and literature hold no boundaries. Art is a facet of human life that has been around just as long as we have (think cave drawings), and it's not going anywhere. These are ways to express ourselves and our culture, create individuality, and entertain us. It's this strange impulse humans have to be creative that makes room for some of the most awesome things in life. It's as if life on Earth itself was just a great art project by (a) God. Pretty awesome huh?

You love.

Love, it's a beautiful thing. I know for me personally, I can't walk down the street without falling in love with every pretty girl I see. Our capability to love enables us to co-exist somewhat peacefully and grow together (we are social beings after all). Without love, we would be living frightened and alone in the bush somewhere. We love our spouses, families and friends. We also love our nation, the wind in our hair, a smiling face and a cold drink on a warm day. Like many animals, humans are altruistic by nature: constantly sacrificing our own well-being for the benefit of others. That is a beautiful thing. No, scratch that, that is an awesome thing.

You use language.

Humans are social beings by nature. Like many animals, we use communication as a means of survival. Humans are equipped with an innate ability to learn and use language, even as infants. Some of us are so awesome that we have learned to speak more than one language. Not to mention, the human voice is incredibly useful for countless things; it can deliver the news, sing a lullaby, scare away predators, deliver speeches to change a nation, help us form bonds and teach our children. Without language, humans wouldn't be able to share our thoughts and ideas, much like I am doing with this article. How awesome is that?

You can think.

By and large the most powerful and most awesome trait of us modern day humans. Sure, many creatures in the animal kingdom can think intelligently; the chimpanzee and the dolphin, for example. But it is the human brain that is capable of highly intelligent thinking. It's responsible for life as we know it (for better and for worse). From the simplest things like breathing, the invention of the wheel, the domestication of animals and agriculture and up to the Internet. With these big brains inside our heads, we are able to unconsciously perceive everything around us, analyze it, and react to it accordingly. Despite all this, our brains still often forget just how awesome we really are

If you are thinking I have used the word awesome too much, I'll agree with you. For that, I'm sorry. But it's true! There is an entire mountain range of reasons why humans are awesome, and this is just one little snow-capped peak of a single mountain. You're beautiful, you're smart, funny, talented, witty, yadda yadda yadda...you get it. The point is, it's never a bad thing to remind ourselves of our most simplistic capabilities, and just how awesome they make each and every one of us, including you.