There seems to be this irony about adulthood It's like you gain a lot of knowledge, but you lose a lot of hope You ask less question, you pretend you have the answers You put up walls and barriers To avoid vulnerability, and you call it strength But when I study those that I find most extraordinary I see once common theme They remain curious Deeply curious They embrace the questions that have no answers They keenly observe the intricate details of humanity They welcome emotion: sorrow and ecstasy, just the same They dare to love, knowing full well the possibility of loss It's like adulthood tells us that living is Synonymous with running away from our true emotions That living is self-protecting and suppressing But I think it may just be the opposite Living is finding the harmonious Coexistence of life's juxtaposing concepts The overwhelming beauty and the crippling pain The indescribable connection and the undeniable distance It's the freedom and the bondage The love and the loss The bravery and the fear It's the windy and restless, and the still and reverent The lonely and the busy The tears and the belly laughs And the beginnings and the ends I believe if you can learn to cultivate a balance between it all Then you have learned what it is to live And to be truly human