Modern Human: The Broken Soul

From childhood, I only wanted to tell people stories and tried to come up with jokes. I wanted them to be happy; I wanted them to laugh. But then I realized, most of the people around me did not want these things. They wanted people to agree with them, to cater to them. They wanted the new shoe releases or the new jacket that just “dropped.” They did not want to be challenged in the sense that I wanted to challenge them. They did not want to improve their emotions and work toward a better way of existing, for themselves and others.

I never really fit in with the "popular" crowds in my youth, as it was popular to bully and ridicule “nerds,” and I often observed people silently from my desk in class. I was blunt and told people the truth of how I felt. That landed me at the “uncool” table. At the end of elementary school, I understood my role in society: misfit.

When we are young, they do not tell us the truth of life. But life is simple: We live, and then we die. Life is beautiful, and we should treasure each moment, as every day is a new experience. The air we breathe, the animals we take for granted… You must take time to stop and look past the chaos our species has created. To fix a broken system, we must remember the joys this life brings, and we must remember this life is worth fighting for.

That said, we share this planet with other human beings who are trying to be happy. It is easy to make excuses for wrong behavior. But admitting one’s mistake at harboring prejudices and hate toward another is a feat we should encourage others.

While morality and ethics differ depending on an individual’s mindset, one thing is certain. When one hurts another, that is an infringement on that person’s wellbeing. The highly self-centered person would respond with, “What about how I feel?” To that, I reply, “So? Who cares how you feel? You clearly do not care about how they feel. If you did, why did you hurt them?”

One should never be tolerant of hateful intolerance. Rather, one should be accepting of those who wake up to their wrongdoings. This is how we create positive change and can fix a broken system of apathy and cruelty.