Humanness

I have met incredibly successful people in my life. Famous artists, billionaires, and acclaimed professors. I’ve trained with olympians and shook hands with diplomats. So why did it take me moving to a small mountain town in New Zealand for humans to throw me into a state of awe, and envy.

Kiwis have a humble way about going through life. They are a resilient and brave bunch that support each other and celebrate one another’s successes. When I first moved to Wanaka, I went on a short walk up Rocky Mountain. Just as I reached the top, a group of locals began to hoot and holler at each other as they ran off the mountain into the clear air.

They were paragliders, floating delicately through the sky among the ridge lines and into the blue.

While I lived there, I had the privilege of coaching swimming for the local club in town. The kids I coached inspired me. Their ability to find multiple avenues of interest fascinated me as an American. Some of my kids also ski raced, on such a high level they were filmed for luxurious ski brands. Others were getting their pilots license, and flying planes on the weekends. And a few loved swimming so much they would come to the pool outside of practice times to work on their technical skills.

And then there was a coworker of mine who has completed three of the Oceans Seven. For those who don’t know, the Oceans Seven is a marathon swimming competition equivalent of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge. She crossed the Cook Strait (the length between the north and south island of NZ) in 9.5 hours in 11 degrees celsius waters. She’s swam with sharks, and trained in even colder water, all without a wet suit. She is crazy impressive, and humble beyond measure.

Wanaka has as estimated population of 12,150. Nestled as the gateway to Mt. Aspiring National Park. It is a free skiers paradise, bringing in professional freeriders, and park rats from all over the world. I swear, mid way through the season, you could throw a rock and it would hit someone in a red bull hat. With them, came impressive photographers and film makers. Even if you could do a backflip you were considered bottom of the totem pole next to guys throwing tweaked double cork 1260s with a mute/ high safety.

Anyway, I could write a short novel on the people that I met and the impressive things they’ve done in their lifetime. But that’s not what this post is about. I just find the way they human to be fascinating.

My time in Wanaka opened my eyes to the capacity for human experience. I started seeing peoples raw humanness. In a world that is so groomed with instagram filters, professional standards, and climbing the ladder of success; it is so rare to see people vulnerable.

I saw people beyond the cool tricks they could do on skis, I began to notice peoples’ humanness. I noticed the flirtatious mannerisms, and the nerves that would come with them. I noticed when some were brave, while others were overwhelmed. I tuned into my surroundings, and found that even though this town attracted people from all over the world, we weren’t all that different.

We actually have many commonalities in this land of misfit toys.

I noticed the different types of humans. The intellects. The musical. The socially inclined. The fashionable. The mountaineers. The fashionable mountaineers.

I saw the way humans choose one another. The way one human would see another persons’ “humanness” like, yes. I choose you, if you’ll have my humanness. This to me, is magical.

My friends in NZ are all travelers. We met through Facebook groups, and mutual friends. It felt like a tangled web of chance. We talk about this “magic” that brought us together. We grew up in different places of the world. Have lived our lives and grew into ourselves by ourselves. It felt like a miracle to come to NZ completely alone and then meet this wonderful group of humans at this time in our lives. To see and choose each other and to care for one another. We existed in the land of misfit toys. But to us we belonged. At least when we were with each other, we belonged.

Being human is not easy. No one has ever said that it is. As humans we choose to love. And with love comes loss, pain, struggle, failure, you name it. But there’s also a magic to being human. We are giddy over a colorful sunrise, and dance under full moons. We sing songs of stoke when snow falls, and find entertainment in colorful light shows.

There is so much beauty in being human. You just have to look for it.