It’s one a.m and I’m sitting at my table staring between a paper and a screen that has shifted into an unrecognizable blur. Excuses fill my head, all better than the truth. I couldn’t do it. My heart rate increases and I can’t breathe, trying not to let my self esteem be crushed by the moment’s reality. Running on three hours of sleep and caffeine I feel like I’m made of stress and anxiety.
Inhale, exhale, and repeat.
How is it that the only thing students want to do is leave? Leave home, leave school, be a person of their own design and not something streamlined to fit perfectly into society. We’re held in high esteem for conformity and criticized for creativity and a desire to be free. Screens dictate our lives until we’re blind to anything outside the bubble that we never leave.
We weren’t always this way. Every day I go to work and see young kids whose biggest fear in life is that their parents will forget to kiss them goodnight. They don’t know what it’s like to fight for their rights, their naivety, the ability to use their mind without becoming a liability.
The burden of responsibility is heavy on our shoulders. What happened to the belief that we can be anything, do anything, live our dream? At what point did we decide this couldn’t possibly apply to you, to me? We may be young, but when did that become a disability? If you think this world is unfair, change it! Look around and you’ll see no lack of social and economic disparities. And we’re all in reach, each one of us affected by the disadvantages abounding in today’s society. Together, we can create a world you would want for your friends and family. I believe, we all have the same potential as any of the heroes in history. We just haven’t achieved it yet.