What Does it Mean to be Human?

What does being human mean?  The ability to walk on two feet and communicate with each other through words?  Or maybe, as put as in the YouTube video "What Does it Mean to be Human?," being human is the fact that we have thumbs?  To me, being human is being able to make decisions and learn from past mistakes, to be able, in some way, communicate thoughts and to feel a need for fellowship.

My English class recently finished the novel Frankenstein.  Throughout this novel a monster,created by scientist Victor Frankenstein, learns many ideas as to what being human takes.  First off, he learned the necessities of living:  food, water, sunlight, and exercise.  Soon he learns from watching an everyday family, that relationships and fellowship are also important characteristics to being human.  We need to communicate, in some way, our thoughts and ideas so that we can prosper and better ourselves.  In the novel, the monster worked hard to learn the language and soon tried to communicate with people because of his felt need to take part in these human necessities.

To me, one of our greatest attributes to being human is how we can make decisions on our own and our ability to learn from past experiences.  Everyday a normal human makes a ton of decisions.  They make the decision to wake up or go back to sleep, what they should eat, what they should do that day, and so much more.  Some decisions are more important than others, of course, because they have the power to completely change our future.  Our future is constantly changed by the choices we make, and although we can not change our past, we can change our future.  For this reason, it is very important for us, humans, to learn from our past and to overcome it so that we might have a brighter future!  A huge part in what makes us human is our ability to take action or to sit back depending on the situation.  Sometimes mistakes are made, but as humans, those mistakes are what further us in our knowledge of life.

What makes us human, I believe has nothing to do with our outward appearance.  Although I do agree with those that say our thumbs differ us from other living creatures, I also know that not all humans have been blessed with them.  Nick Vujicic is a man who was born without any limbs.  In his book, Life Without Limits, he tells of obstacles that he has faced and how he has overcome them.  He does not spend his time feeling sorry for himself, but actually goes and helps others, which is amazing in his circumstances.  He is a living example of what I believe being human means because of how he has overcome some huge trials and they have shaped him to a bright future.  For me, being human is being able to make decisions and learning from past experiences, to be able, in some way, communicate thoughts and to feel a need for fellowship.