When this began, I didn’t know what an “influencer” was. The meanings of “follow,” “like,” and “hashtag” weren’t part of my vernacular, and 2 p.m. was just an empty space between personal training clients. When this began, I also lived in fear of dementors dominating my daily life.

At the same time, the #fitspo trend was swallowing the fitness industry whole—like a hot pink horse pill peddled by said “influencers,” all chasing the highly addictive instant gratification of our newly founded “insta-world.” Meanwhile, in Largo, Florida, I was up and in the gym with clients—every day—at 6 a.m., a hot cup of coffee in hand and a warm hug ready to go.

My mission was—and still is—to build humans from the inside out. The human body is the most complex piece of machinery ever crafted. A luxury vehicle, deserving to be handled with respect, love, and dedication. It’s been my mission to understand it and all its complexity.

Understanding its evolution is a never-ending process—and should be treated as such. Every moving part serves a greater purpose. Nothing is a mistake; every piece has its place. The human body is magic realized—and it’s so much more than the aesthetics we’ve become obsessed with, thanks to overly publicized progress photos.

Running a full-time personal training business while being a full-time student was more than enough to test my passion and my patience. I was wrapping up a B.A. in Digital and Mass Media Communications—a degree nearly six years in the making. What I thought would be nothing more than an ill-fitting robe and an initialed piece of paper became something far more valuable.

It showed me what I had: a knack for the click-clack of a keyboard, a love for transformation, and a talent for turning traumas into tests, tests into lessons, lessons into stories, and stories into human connections. My degree revealed that every human has stories, truths, loves, and traumas that deserve to be heard.

When practiced with love, objectivity, and empathy, communication transforms from a task into a tool. It becomes authentic human connection. Through those connections, we form relationships, families, and social circles. Communication is the foundation of a healthy and functioning society. And yet, it’s what we seem to be missing most—the willingness and the want to connect, to share, to be human—with other humans.

Every class felt like a mirror reflecting blatant errors in the media. We all want to be followed, liked, and shared. We all want to matter. And yet, we’ve used one of the most anthropologically advanced pieces of technology ever created to chase the next hit of the hottest drug on the market: validation.

Social media has the power to fulfill one of our most primal human needs—connection. Without it, we wilt like an unloved houseplant, sentenced to solitude without a lick of sunshine.

We’ve all been there. We’ve been that houseplant in the corner, bruising our leaves trying to reach for light. Wondering what the point is, being something so beautiful left in the dark.

My personal battle with dementors isn’t locked in a Chamber of Secrets—it’s online. I went from proclaiming my distaste for humans—something all too common in the internet era—to sharing every bit of my journey with a digital world. Knowing that there were human beings behind those usernames. People searching for something they couldn’t find in real life.

There was a moment in one of my classes—Media Ethics (yeah, the irony)—where everything clicked. After more than five years of questioning what I was going to do with my degree, it made sense.

“Journalism is the business of humanity,” I told my professor. “It’s our job to share stories and connect with other human beings.”

I took to social media that day and started sharing mine. I knew that if I wanted others to open up, I had to take the first step. It wasn’t about how many people read it or liked it—it was about starting a conversation that needed to happen.

Each time I peeled back another layer of my journey, messages poured in. People thanking me for “being vulnerable.” For being “brave.” And I was baffled.

I can’t be the only one.

The posts became more real. The message, clearer. Every day between ‘flients,’ I would write, connect, and share with humans. Yes, real-life people. The ones quietly suffering on the outskirts. The ones who “get it,” but don’t want to “sound crazy.” The ones waiting for someone—lovingly—to start the conversation.

We scroll through our days, double-tapping what we like and swiping left on what we don’t. Refreshing screens for red-tabbed notifications that temporarily validate our lives.

But what if we stopped scrolling and started connecting? What if we asked, “How are you, really?” and dared to prompt the larger questions of life?

What if we used social media to start conversations about mental health and the power of love, to promote real, impactful change?

This tool we’ve uncovered—bruised and beaten by the worst parts of society—deserves a facelift. It’s time to take social media back from bots, booties, and breast implants.

Let’s make socials a place to actually be social. A space for evolution, mutual growth, and positivity. A place where stories are shared, respected, and heard.

It’s more than the metrics we obsess over. It’s about humans finally receiving what we’ve needed all along—a pseudo-watering hole that connects us through shared interests.

It’s time to shift our interests from viral videos to a very real virus. According to the AFSP, in 2017 there were nearly 1.3 million suicide attempts in the United States. Suicide remains the 10th leading cause of death.

Some headlines include children as young as nine years old. Regardless of the trigger, the root cause is often the same: overwhelming darkness, feeling misunderstood, or having no one to talk to—judgment-free.

We can raise “awareness” until we’re blue in the face, but in my heart, it’s time for more. It’s time to test this world-shaking tool and use it to take action. It’s time to remind the people behind the usernames of what connects us at our core.

The need to love and be loved. Every human deserves to know they’re worthy of evolution, change, and growth. Your dementors are only here to show you how magical you are.

Like a sorcerer’s stone, your magic may have been buried—and placed in the wrong hands—for far too long. But it’s yours to reclaim. Dust it off. Take it back. Know that you can conquer every hurdle and show up for life with focus, dedication, and optimism.

This is my WHY. If I could give back even half of what this journey has given me, it still wouldn’t be enough. Every human who encounters Human Builder will be reminded of their worth. They will know—if only for a moment—that they aren’t crazy, and someone out there really does “get it.”

My WHY is to be the person I wish I had when things were at their worst. To connect authentically, educate humans around the world, and create a program that offers actionable steps to defeat dementors—both in and out of the gym—with the intention of helping prevent suicide from going any more viral.