One's Gravitational Pull Towards the Human Experience

Last week's topic for my Humanities class focused on pilgrimage, religion and its aspects as well as the impact it has has on society. At first, I was honestly not too sure about the topic because religion is a touchy subject that tends to be avoided, especially in a classroom setting with the exception of religion courses. Still, I reminded myself that my class was Honors and my classmates have never offended anybody during our discussions. Anyway, the discussion opened up many of my classmates about the signifiance of religion in general. Our main focus leaned toward whether religion strengthened one's life and perspective about the world, and we contemplated if religion plays a role in one's journey and/or destination. How did we start talking about journies and destinations? My classmates actually kept referring to a documentary we had to watch that focused on a man's journey through El Camino De Santiago. At first, Daniel, one of the two people leading the discussion, said it was a spiritual journey. However, my professor corrected him and said the journey was not necessarily spiritual; he EXPLORES why people do it and attempts to find meaning from such an experience, but it could be lack of connectivity spiritually -wise. Now, if we apply it universally, it means that through one's journey, one experiences and creates the foundation of what makes the effort so meaningful. But is it the journey that is so precious to us or the destination? We unanimously agreed that the journey itslef is much more important than the destination because within the journey, we undergo challenges and irreplaceable moments that strengthen our religion, beliefs, and other elements that are a part of us. We all have our own sense of faith and it does not have to be religious. Even though religion does provide a sense of community, tradition, order, rules, ethic, and morality, we do not necessarily need religion to guide us nor do our intentions always have to be religious. As my class phrased it, "you do not need religion to create the result of the journey."

I was inspired by our discussion and wrote a poem about hardships because I truly believe that overcoming my hardships is the core of my "faith" or the force that pulls that me toward the journey. Even when we feel most alone, we must remind ourselves that there are others who are feeling the same way and possibly due to the same reason. It is titled "A Reminder."

There are moments my heart feels much heavier than usual And the baggage itself has become a part of my being. I try to endure the drag until the point that I almost break And that is when I realize how strong I genuinely am; For being able to till feel the brokenness of what makes me human whereas others have become apathetic, a condition far worse than caring too much about something in particular, Because when push comes to shove, you realize you would rather regret having done it, than regret not doing it all.