The only thing decorating the blank wall was an incomplete puzzle. What an odd choice of decor, I thought. Where were the rest of the pieces? Was it ever meant to be completed at all? What if the picture was incomplete from the beginning? What if we search our whole lives to complete and find ourselves, only to understand there was always meant to be a missing piece – that there was never a right answer nor a perfect fit? Why are we then looking to find a final answer to the question of our being?  

I proceeded to look down at the ground beneath the puzzle, where I found a few pieces lying around. Upon closer inspection of one of them, I added the piece to a section of the left side of the puzzle. In the blink of an eye, the hues of color morphed to form a new picture; it was as if each piece was alive and had a mind of its own, but nevertheless closely connected to the whole. The added piece changed the vision with which I saw the world; it changed the person I was. We stumble upon these pieces in our day-to-day lives: the simple and heart-warming interactions we have with strangers that change how we think, and the very experiences where life teaches us something new. That piece, seemingly insignificant, changes the interactions between the different parts of our being, allowing us to change. 

The more I stared at the picture, the more I felt like the piece in the middle no longer belonged to what the puzzle had become, as if it were part of the past, but no longer part of the future and what the puzzle was becoming. I felt guilty removing the piece, but by doing so, I allowed more space to open up for what life had to offer me as I went on with my journey. Was what the puzzle used to be wrong? No. The box that the puzzle came with was as blank as a white canvas, ready to be painted with the imagination of the person. The puzzle never had a definite form but rather endless possibilities, ready to be discovered through the collection of pieces found in our lives. 

Would you have spent as much time looking at the puzzle if it were complete, if you were sure that was all there was to it? Would you have taken the time to imagine what the missing space could hold? Or would you have gotten bored with it after a while and taken it off the wall to replace it with something else? The adventure, self-reflection, and self-actualization are what give value to the puzzle. The changing picture is what pulls us in and allows us to see the beauty in not knowing. We are ever-changing, and that is the nature of us as humans; that is what makes us unique. Those who haven’t figured out that the puzzle of their being is incomplete still haven’t opened their eyes to the puzzle in front of them.