Untitled
After long hours of contemplation, I have yet to come to fathom my place in this universe. As of now, all I know is that I am a microscopic speck stranded in the middle of seven continents and five oceans; a singular being in a world of seven billion. I am a girl overrun by tumultuous cyclones yet assuaged by tranquil breezes, attempting to stand firmly as the world spins around me at irregular patterns, twirling gently one minute and pivoting vehemently the next.
Engulfed in this mercurial hurricane that we call planet Earth, I have often wondered about my place in this world. Under which category do I, a fourteen-year old girl, fall under in the Grand Scheme of Things? We, as humans, often tend to adopt a rigid and closed mindset in order to preserve the chaos that reigns in our mind. We welcome in open arms our sisters and brothers but hurriedly shut our gates to strangers and foreigners. We cherish wings similar to our own but don’t hesitate to cut the ones that stray from our accepted idea of conventionality. We learn to scorn differences, imprisoning each other by placing superficial labels based on materialistic aspects. So in this world built on the foundation of individual pride and embraced uniformity, where do I stand?
I look around me, and I am surrounded by an unimaginable variety of people. Some stand proudly with an unyielding smirk smeared across their faces, their backs straight and their head pointed up towards the heavens. Others stand slouched with misery seeping from their every pore, an expression of defeat painted across their faces. These are the people who have succumbed to the despair that prevails in our world, letting the chains of society bear down on them. I often wonder to what extent humans will allow society to rampage their souls and their minds. When will enough be enough? I look around me, and I see the hands of society, the ones that we all created centuries ago, trampling humans to the ground, avidly stealing their last breaths away. From the corner of my eye, I observe as the strong stand back and watch the scene with condescension, overlooking the situation while treasuring their moments of freedom and bliss. I then manage to catch a glimpse of the few horrified humans, struggling to swim to the rescue but drowning in their own shackles of prejudice and discrimination. How have we have allowed ourselves to sink so deep? As humans, individuals coming from all over the globe, we have failed at uniting as one. We scrutinize each other and notice the differences without second thought, neglecting the beauty and virtue concealed under the facade of appearances. We are even lower than beasts themselves, for at least beats do not act upon a basis of self-centeredness and intolerance. In this tornado built on the premise of inequality and injustice, I spin around and around, unable to distinctly perceive my stand.
Finally, the devil finishes his dance and the world stops spinning. Right then and there, I am able to observe my surroundings. What I see leaves me in a state of deep perplexity, for I realize that I am surrounded by people who are just like me. Beings who, before they know it, are carried away by the blasts and by the gusts and are transported into a dimension of perpetual oblivion. We stand idly like spectators, watching as the world unravels before our eyes. We hear shrieks of anguish and chuckles of contempt; we witness scenes of horror and scenes of oppression. And yet, we refrain from acting. We accept the world as it is, perhaps believing that there isn’t possibly anything that we could do to appease the windstorm in which we are entangled in. Maybe one day we will finally have the strength to build our own tsunami that will vanquish the hurricane. But for now, we are simply bystanders holding on the hope that one day we will be able to defeat society before society defeats us.
