I believe in pain. It hurts. No one likes it, but pain is a thing that everyone experiences. No matter how many times you experience it, it never gets any easier to bear. People tend to want to avoid any possible pain because who in their right mind wants to get hurt. I believe in pain. I believe that pain is one of the few things that connects and makes people people. Admittedly it hurts and gets worse the more pain there is, the simple act of feeling pain proves that you’re still here. As painful as pain can be, sometimes it’s the one thing that’s actively telling you that you are indeed alive. 

     There are two types of pain, emotional and physical pain. While physical pain is usually the type that comes across people’s mind, emotional pain is the type that truly changes a person. Breaking up with a long term significant other is a common type of emotional pain that many people experience and arguably fear. The thought that the one person that you thought loved you for some reason no longer does not can bring on such pain that it feels unbearable. However, if the relationship did not work there has to be an underlying reason. That reason will be something you learn to avoid next time and grow as a person so you can find your person. If that reason was as simple as being too far from each other, now you know that maybe you want to find someone closer and with that now your wants change and you are one step closer to finding that person.

      Physical pain also plays a significant role in people’s lives. In fact, one of the many ways people learn things from a young age is from the physical pain that they experience. If a young child touches a burning stove and experiences that burning sensation, they now know that the burning stove is not for touching. Simple acts like that can create simple routines that allow for people to learn things they were unfamiliar about. Conquering pain as a fear opens an endless amount of doors for you. When you fall down after skateboarding, you’re no longer thinking about how much that pain hurts but rather how you should avoid doing what you just did that made you feel that pain. Pain becomes a teacher. While it does hurt and is something that you should want to avoid, pain tells us that something isn’t right. Congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis or CIPA is a disease where the patient can not feel pain as they’re pain receptors are not connected to this brain properly. At first glance this may seem like an amazing thing however, with deeper thought one realizes how dangerous and bad this is. If you do not feel pain, you cannot go to the doctors to feel better once you feel that weird, sharp jab in your stomach; and if you can’t do that, you can’t get better and are simply hurting yourself beyond your comprehension.

     I do not believe in intentionally hurting yourself to feel pain. That is irresponsible and dangerous. I believe in pain not necessarily being something negative. I believe in pain being able to be a good thing. Next time you’re hurt that someone ditched you, rather than thinking about how much it hurts; instead think about how this could be avoided. This pain is telling you that this isn’t right and you need to follow that. Next time you’re hurt because you fell off a skateboard, rather than being scared of skating; you should be excited too. After falling, now you know what not to do when skating. Not to lean this far or skate that fast. Don’t think of pain as a current feeling but as a teacher of life. Pain will always follow you and teach you to become stronger and better.