Human beings are ends in themselves 

Today I read a phrase in my political thought class: “human beings are ends in themselves”.

And I couldn’t stop repeating it to myself and I couldn’t get it out of my head so here is a poem about it.

I have tried so hard to look for meaning,

for the slightest of nods from the universe to let me know:

“Good going girl”

“This is who you’re meant to be”

“This is what it’s all about”

And I can’t stop thinking, in the late hours of the night, in the morning looking at my own bleary eyes reflection saying the mantra of the 20 something millennial who feels a bit lost and alone and oh lord so exhausted:

“What the hell am I doing?”

And today I read the phrase “human beings are ends in themselves” and I have spent what feels like decades though really I’ve only been breathing for two, looking for new beginnings  and second chances and what’s just over that next hill and maybe it’s been here all along

Inside of me tucked somewhere between my sense of wrong and right and my first love who never quite left me.

I am the finish line, and the happy ending I’ve been looking for has been here the whole time and do you know what a relief it is to realize what the universe has been telling me is:

Honey, you are enough.