Finding Our Essential Humanity
Lauren Cook, Founder
“It’s hard to be human.” I say this all the time. It’s hard to be an individual human, with our own personal stresses and battles, big and small. It’s also hard at a community level and global level–what are we doing to each other and our world? It can feel maddening and overwhelming.
And yet, it’s our shared humanity that not only gets us through our hardships and struggles, but it’s what we live for – connections, relationships, experiences. As a Connecting Our Stories team and alongside our clients, it’s this shared humanity we keep coming back to.
We recently posted a case study about our 2025 work with Texas A&M University’s Marketing and Communications division. We provided coaching for their highly creative Visual Stories team. During these sessions, I would often come back to the same human-centered questions regarding story projects:
Where is the humanity here?
What is the most human-centered story we can tell?
We would also push the team to highlight the unique spirit of their institution. We would say, “That’s a great story idea; what makes it a uniquely Aggie story?” Or, “Where is the Aggie spirit shining through this story?”
It’s common for organizations to show what they do. But we believe the best of communications and storytelling shares who an organization is. How does your work uniquely address the world’s needs? How are your organization’s particular gifts, perspectives, and passions on display?
I recently came across the word “essence.” To be honest, it’s not a word I particularly liked. It strikes me as a bit woo woo or vague. The funny thing is, I like the word “essential” and use it often–an essential issue, the essential solution, etc. “Essential” to me sounds like something that is necessary, important, can’t live without. But essence . . . hmm. I decided to give it a chance, look it up, and see if it resonated. Of course it did (see image).
The essence of a person, organization, or thing is what makes it what it is. And I’m all about that which makes us US. That which makes our lives and our organizations unique and authentic.
So I’m an essence convert. And I encourage all of us, in our lives, work, and stories, to always come back to our essence – what makes us us.
Being human can be so hard. And yet, sharing our humanity – at the most essential level – will keep us going, together.