The Human Curiculum

​ 

It has taken me a lifetime to verbalize this into a poem and the written words that follow….it is my legacy and message to all that want to listen and read, especially my kids. Add your version and wisdom to it. Feel free to share it and may it touch and guide in ways that benefits all….

“The Human Curriculum”

Family and Friends, fellow travelers in this strange and beautiful experience we call life

We often imagine that being human is something we simply are, but the truth is far more intricate. Being human is something we learn, unlearn, and relearn across the entire arc of our existence. We are not handed a manual at birth; instead, we are given a body, a lifetime, and a series of lessons disguised as ordinary days.

The first truth is this:

We arrive in a body that is entirely ours yet entirely unfamiliar. Some of us spend years trying to escape it, reshape it, or negotiate with it. But this body is not a punishment or a prize — it is a vehicle for experience. It is the first teacher, the first boundary, the first home. Accepting it is not vanity; it is wisdom.

The second truth is that life is a school without walls.

Every moment is a lesson, whether we recognize it or not. Some lessons feel profound; others feel pointless. Some arrive as joy, others as heartbreak. But all of them shape us. Growth is not linear — it is a spiral. We revisit the same themes, the same wounds, the same patterns, until we finally understand what they came to teach us.

There are no mistakes, only experiments.

We are conditioned to fear failure, yet failure is the most honest form of learning. Every misstep is data. Every disappointment is direction. The universe is not punishing us; it is instructing us. When we fall, we are not being pushed down — we are being shown where the ground is.

Lessons repeat until we learn them.

This is one of the hardest truths to accept. We meet the same type of person in a different face. We fall into the same argument with a different name. We sabotage ourselves in familiar ways. Life is patient. It will not move us forward until we are ready. And when we are ready, the door opens effortlessly.

Learning never ends.

If you are alive, you are a student. Every age brings a new curriculum. Childhood teaches dependence. Adolescence teaches identity. Adulthood teaches responsibility. And later years teach surrender, acceptance, and legacy. There is no final exam — only continuous evolution.

We chase “there,” believing it is better than “here.”

We tell ourselves that happiness lives in the next job, the next relationship, the next achievement. But the moment we arrive, the horizon shifts. “There” becomes “here,” and we begin the chase again. The truth is simple: fulfillment is not a destination. It is a practice of presence.

Others are mirrors.

Every person we love reflects a part of us we cherish. Every person we resent reflects a part of us we avoid. Human relationships are not accidents; they are revelations. When someone triggers us, they are showing us where we are still tender. When someone inspires us, they are showing us what we are capable of becoming.

Your life is your creation.

You have tools, talents, instincts, and inner resources that no one else possesses in the same combination. What you build with them is your choice. You are not defined by what happened to you, but by what you choose to do next.

Your answers lie within.

We spend years searching outward — for approval, for direction, for meaning. But the deepest truths are internal. Intuition is not a whisper; it is a compass. The more we trust it, the more clearly the path unfolds.

And finally—

You will forget all of this.

Not because you are flawed, but because forgetting is part of the human cycle. We forget so we can remember. We fall so we can rise. We break so we can rebuild with intention. Life is not a straight line; it is a rhythm.

So let us walk forward with humility, curiosity, and compassion — for ourselves and for each other. We are all learning. We are all trying. We are all becoming.

And that, in the end, is the most human thing of all.