[ESSAY] What Does it Mean to be "Human"?

Biologically human beings are all the same, unless of course you have a disability. But what qualifies something to be called a human being? What does it mean to be “human”? There’s no right answer, but instead an opinion. I believe the definitive characteristic of a human being is emotion.

There can definitely be some controversy about my theory that even I can see. Obviously human beings aren’t the only species that have emotion, pet owners know this. You can tell when a dog bares his teeth and growls he’s mad. And when a cat’s hair stands on end they’re scared. Humans on the other hand tend to be more secretive with their emotions, and we can control them. For example if someone is angry they can choose when and where to release their anger. One could use yelling, ignoring, blackmail, and violence as an outlet to escape their anger. Another example is if you like/love a person. You can choose when and if to tell them. For one you could hide your feeling from the person, which seems to be one of the most popular ways people deal with their crushes. Or you can muster up the courage to ask them out. And even when we’re sad we can decide to cry or force our tears away. This is part of what is called Emotional Intelligence. 

The four main branches of EI are perceiving emotions, reasoning with emotions, understanding emotions, and mangaing emotions. Humans are capable in all four of these categories which help set us apart from other species. With perceiving emotions we can look at one's face expressions and interpret how we think they are feeling at the moment. Like if someone is smiling we can assume from our knowledge of body language that they are happy. Reasoning with emotions means we only react to the things that interest us. Say you're watching one of your friend's favorite soap operas and suddenly someone dies. You won't act the same way your friend would because your not as commited to the show as they are. When we try to understand emotions, we pull out possible reasons for a person to be having the emotions they are showing. Like if you see someone who is crying, you automatically wonder "why?". Did they have a bad day? Did they get in an arguement? Did they get hurt? Did one of their family members get hurt? Etc. Mangaing emotions is key in everyday life, with ourselves and with others. Lets use the example of someone crying again. So if your friend was crying, you wouldn't go up and start yelling at them. You would try to manage their emotions by comforting them. Managing the emotions around us takes common sense and knowing what actions will get us positive reactions.

As far as I can see, the three main emotions of animals are mad, sad, and happy. That’s a really small range of emotions. But humans have multiple, complex emotions: envy, hatred, anxiety, confidence, compassion, determination, etc. The list can go on and on. Our list could be longer because humans have emotional sensitivity. Some are easily offended from people’s actions or words, while others could be too calm. Humans also vary in emotions in different situations. Take eating meat for example. Some people like vegetarian and vegans find it repulsive to eat animals or anything produced from them. But others seem to think nothing of it and embrace it as a part of life. Those are two opposite emotions people are getting from the same topic, and neither of those groups are feeling something wrong. That’s just how their brain interprets the idea.

Humans can also care for one others’ emotions opposed to where everyone is on their own. We constantly help others get through hard times that deal with sadness and anger. Some people even have to go to Emotional Therapy to deal with their overwhelming emotions. It’s a powerful thing when a group of people are all sharing the same emotion. I’ve experienced this one on a few occasions. Once it was at my dad’s and he was leaving to go to war at the end of summer. My dad, stepmom, and I were deciding what we would do if he died while there. We chose who got what after he passed and how we would go about the funeral. The stress of him leaving seemed to build up in all of us and my stepmom began to cry. Immediately as I saw this I began to cry as well, and my dad soon after. It was hard not to cry when you see someone else release their feelings in that way. It’s like you have a bond with those around you and you don’t feel so alone. Another time when this can happen is when people are arguing. Once you’re with two or more people who are arguing you can’t help but get mad and frustrated yourself. In other words our emotions are vulnerable.

Another unique thing about human emotions is certain objects, people, or smells can trigger memories from out past, and emotions along with them. I have experience this one as well. Every once in a while I'll randomly catch a whiff of a perfume that reminds me of my grandma Shirley’s. It makes me happy to thing about all the fun times I’ve had on her farm in New York, but at the same time it makes me sad to know how much I miss my family there. It’s amazing how I can feel two different emotions from something I smelled.

There are endless ways you can answer the question: What does it mean to be “human”? And any answer you choose is “right” as long as you can back it up. For me, emotion is one of the main definitive characteristics of a human being. But then again, who can really tell what’s going on in an animal’s mind? So much is still unknown and it’s our job to put the pieces together.