Optimisme

This past week has been exhausting, demoralizing, and sobering all together. In a week saturated with racism, terrorism and general hatefulness from all directions, I found myself constantly being reminded of the many faces of evil in this world. I felt how poisonous our greatest forms of information sharing could become. I saw how quickly ignorance can grow into bigotry. I experienced racial tensions on a college campus, that intensified into racial threats. I was reminded that extremists exist who possess the capacity to carry out such threats on a mass level. Hate and pain continued to grow, suffocating positivity and inhibiting progress. Small victories seemed insignificant and battles seemed increasingly less worth fighting. Our collective energy had become negative energy; negativity was the driving force of society and that is how we crumble. We’ve been hit hard by negativity and we need to hit back even harder through optimism.

We are the millennials, the future of this world and we will be the change that affects the world from here on out. Which direction we lead society in from here is completely on us, we must allow optimism to drive us more than negativity. Yes, my activism is focused in support of oppressed groups. Yes, my condolences and prayers are with Paris, Beirut, Kenya and every victim of terrorist attacks. But most importantly, my optimism is with everybody. Optimism is the greatest tool in the fight to defeat sexism, racism, terrorism and every system of hate. Optimism, with action, can and will accomplish infinite progress. So I feel it is my duty in times such as this to pick myself up, smile, and act in the name of true progress. But this is not only my duty, it’s our mission and I’m rather optimistic that we’ll all join together in completing it