There are too many things that make up a person.

We want to compact them all

Into one item

“Do you like this?

Or this?”

“What do you prefer?”

“Who is your favorite?”

One or the other

But sometimes I feel like it's both.

Maybe I don't want to decide between

Monochrome or rainbow

Pastel or neon

White or dark chocolate

Rock or folk music.

Maybe I am both

Maybe I am more than both

Maybe I am red and blue and green and gold

Maybe I am punk and dance and pop and instrumental

Why do I have to be one or the other?

“You have to decide! You have to decide!”

“Do you want to be …

a teacher?

a doctor?

an actress?

a painter?

an architect?

a mother?”

“Make your choice now

While you are still young

And have little knowledge of how the world works.”

“Make your choice now

Before someone else takes your place.”

I want to be all of them!

And I want to be none.

I want to be as vast as space and all of the Earth

As old and briny as the ocean

Who was never told to decide what it wanted to be.

I want to be an invisible wind and the green leaves it trails through.

Why must I give up one of the things I love to pursue another?

Why must I only be an ocean? Or only be the earth?

It's simpler that way, sure

We don't have to stretch our minds to figure out what another person is

We don't have to use our imaginations to find out exactly how they can be more than one thing

More than dust

More than air

More than the earth and the ocean

How could you be more than human?

How could you be made of skin and bone and flesh

As well as star dust and moonbeams and all of the elements of the great, wide galaxy?

How could a whole universe fit inside of a body

That is often too weak to carry itself?

How could you be made of ice and crystal and the source of all light and still stand here on Earth?

They want you to be simple because it's easier that way

You are not made of the deep galaxy or the salt ocean or the caverns underneath mountains.

You are made of skin and flesh and bone and sometimes thoughts and emotions.

You are human and nothing more.

You are like the ocean in that way,

You did not get a chance to decide what you wanted to be

But now you do.

So do you want to be

a teacher?

a doctor?

an actress?

a painter?

an architect?

or

a mother?