Life can be hard. Forreal. It's easy to get into a slump and think "I'm not ______ enough." (See? I bet you filled that space pretty easily.) I just wanted to give you some points to remember next time you feel this way because, as much as we forget it, we are all incredible works of nature and simply existing is a phenomenon so awe-inspiring that it cannot be matched. So here are three incredible things about YOU. Read them, remember them, and know that you are alive and astonishing.
1. You're electric!
Electricity is pulsing through you this instant, reaching speeds of up to 119m/s! Inside you right now, from the time you were a foetus until the time you decompose, is a net of specialised cells called neurons. They're responsible for the movement of your eyes as you read this, the processing of the words in your brain, and the thoughts you have thereafter. They're even responsible for the movement of your lips when you ask your friend "Hey have you heard of this amazing blog called Bite-sized Sci?" They govern just about every action you make! You're a power-house and it's amazing when you really think about it.
2. You're way older than you think...
Parts of your DNA are as old as the oldest life forms on earth! Your DNA is the link that binds you to the very first cells that ever lived. The structure of DNA (a double helix consisting of a few specific building blocks called nucleotides) and the way it works to build your tissues is the same throughout the tree of life, which suggests that humans are related (very distantly) to every other organism, with the base of the tree of life being an unknown ancestor from the ages of the primordial soup around 4 BILLION years ago!
3. You're a universe yourself.
There are so many organisms living in your gut right now (don't freak out - they're helpful!) that they outnumber your own body cells! Now, you may find this gross, OR, you can see this for what it is - you are a home, not just to yourself, but to 100 000 000 000 000 bacteria! And that's just in your digestive tract... What's even cooler, is the fact that only 24% of your gut bacteria are known species - you're just full of mystery, aren't you?
You are a complex being and that's not to be underestimated. It's easy to get stuck in melancholy and to be mean to yourself. It isn't always easy to get out of a gloom like that, but it helps to know that you are a living universe, full of electricity and history. You've been a part of this world since it's beginning and you will remain part of it until its end. I don't know what you think, but I think that's pretty damn incredible.