I was recently asked what kind of person I was. It was rhetorical; I answered, "the short kind," and laughed.

But that got me thinking. What defines me?

Most people would answer such a question with their career. "I am an accountant," or, "I am a nurse," or, "I am a Google codemonkey." Or, if they are a student, "I am a student at [insert college here]." Even past that, one might answer with their hobbies. For example, I play video games. A lot. And I take pictures. I write. I read. I climb trees. I spend too much time on the internet. I listen to music. I go on walks and explore.

Is that what makes us? If life took you in such a way that you turned out to be a freelance journalist instead of a nurse, or led you to believe in ghosts instead of God, would you still be the same person?

*****

I've only recently realized how open I am. How willing I am to speak to strangers, and get to know them, even if only for one day. Even if for just a few moments in passing. No, more than willing - eager.

Past that, I've always wanted to travel. Always. I want to see the world. I want to drive across the country, I want to see the northern lights, I want to let everything go and see Southeast Asia by foot, staying in hostels and buying food from street stands. People ask me what I want to be. Of course they mean what do I want to major in when I go to college, and what I want to do for a living afterward. And the truth is, I don't know. Everything has crossed my mind, from graphic design to photography to poetry to nursing to law.

But at the end of the day, when I'm lying on the floor staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars plastered to the ceiling of our tiny apartment bedroom, listening to the piano instrumentals and orchestrated pieces from varied Final Fantasy's that I'm so accustomed to falling asleep to, curled up against the love of my life? Travel is my one and only real dream.

It's hard to explain why. Do I want to see the Taj Mahal in all its glory, or the waterfalls of Thailand, or the Great Wall? Ride the Singapore Flyer and visit Stonehenge? Absolutely! But sightseeing and scoping out the big attractions isn't everything. Far from it. I want to spend an evening in a bazaar. I want to be part of a flash mob. I want to go to an airport and take the next flight, no matter where it's headed for. I want to pick up a language right from its homeland. I want to go to a Japanese tea ceremony. I want to talk to foreign families, and learn what their lives are like. I want to help people I don't know, just because.

It's people that make a place what it is. People are what carry culture and spirit through time. And I love them.

I'm part of a dwindling percentage of this country that still has some faith in humanity. But the reason I have that faith is from experience. Yes, I've known people who are an insult to the human race - too many. And I know there are a lot of people like them in the world, as saddening as that is. But there's always something to outweigh it. No - to balance it. A woman buying a homeless girl and her dog a week's worth of groceries and a sleeping bag. A complete stranger stopping to ask someone why they're crying. A guy picking up an injured stray dog and taking him to the vet. People you see day-to-day, random people, perhaps who shop at the same Walmart as you or who you see in a gas station one night, who are just upbeat and optimistic about life. People who smile, who ask you how you're doing, who dance in public.

I'm not going to pretend there will never be times that life will be hard. That there will be nights when we don't have enough money, when we don't have a comfortable place to sleep, when we're haggled about our passports (or whatever the case may be). But that's life. No matter what you do or where you go, you will have obstacles. And knowing that, I'm confidant that I can face anything thrown at me.

In the meantime, I play video games. I take pictures. I write. I read. I climb trees. I spend too much time on the internet. I listen to music. I go on walks and explore.

And I love. I love my friends, those few whom I hold so close to my heart that I refer to them as my brothers and my sisters. They are my family. And I love them. I love our cat, our furry little sweetheart lying asleep at my feet as I write this. I love my dog, whom I can hardly bring myself to speak about, but whom crosses my mind and makes me smile every single day, even if only in longing. I love my music, those precious words and melodies that somehow speak the words I don't know how to form.

And more than anything, I love my fiancee. Attempting to adjectify the magnitude of how much I love him would ultimately get me nowhere. They say a picture is worth a thousand words; but I don't have enough.

At the end of the day, dreaming about something isn't going to do me any good (although I do it anyways). Because no matter how much I would love to live that dream, life isn't the future. Life isn't a dream, or a hope, or a wish. Life isn't something you put on your to-do list, on a checkbox underneath groceries and paying the bills. Life is the here and now. There is nothing else, nor will there ever be. And believe it or not, I'm happy.

Are there things I wish I had? Of course. A job. More money. Our own apartment. But would they make me happier?

No. They wouldn't.

Because as long as I have him, in the here-and-now, I am happy.

And that girl? The one who can have the best time in the world dancing with a stranger? The one who marvels in the music that speaks a thousand words in a single line of lyric? Lying on the floor at the end of the day with the one she loves above all others, with ultimately no regrets?

That is who I am.