Friday, June 8, 2007

   Thoughts on America
Long into the nights of my youthful days before high school I lay awake in awe at the vastness of the world before me. God created no mountain whose peaks I could not one day scale- should I so aspire. Full of hope and indomitable enthusiasm I began my journey into the realm of possibilities that lie ever beyond the horizon, shimmering, intangible, yet all the same just within reach of the imagination. A junior in High school I still hold and cherish the hope I found in my earliest days, And refuse ( though many have often persuaded me) to "wake up" and "grow up" into a world that seems to discourage idealism in favor of what many see as "realistic". I have not changed, and as far as I can see ahead- do not wish to change this aspect of my life.

And yet I challenge those who would insist I do. The cynics, the "realists"- I defy you!How dare you impose negativity cloaked under the guise of “realism” on those otherwise minded?
If there is no way, no path commonly traveled available- who are you to tell us we cannot? We will make a path, as our forefathers have- taking the American pioneer spirit to an ideological frontier. One of unremitting optimism- a rejection of the common sentiment of the cheap cynicism we see in this day and age!

I have faced a great deal of adversity on this matter, challenges to my resolve in the forms of various incidents: my break-up with my long-time high school love, my incessant fights with my family, my life-long desire to achieve acceptance or die trying..etc. Yet none of that has ever allowed me to abandon my hope for a brighter future- it has not yet rid me the ability to imagine a better life for myself and my fellow Americans; I am not yet- as Hemingway said "broken" , nor have I died in pursuit of a fruitless ideal, nor will I ever.

I will live on in true rebellion to the society that we live in- that says we can't. We can't rise above the barbarism of the past? Can't create a world closer to utopia than ever before? Can't rise above the mistakes of those who have come before us? I believe that pessimism and skepticism for the future is an excuse at best for apathy; and seeing this I cannot help but feel absolute disgust. People scoff at the “communist rantings” of Karl Marx and politely wrinkle their noses in what has come to be a trendy disapproval of the current administration. They look up to the sky, and instead of smiling at the warm springtime sun- or marveling at the majesty of the local sea birds, they curse the smog and Global Warming. As a nice person with humble hopes and dreams; specifically as one person with the will to make a quiet difference in the world through kindness, I ask you fellow Americans to “imagine”. Imagine a world rid of this slow- festering disease or so-called “reality”, this pessimism that- as we speak is slowly rotting away at the American collective.

That is my sincerest hope not only for my life, but for the future of this country. That we as a nation , that we as individuals, be unafraid to foster and follow to fruition our dreams- that we may never abandon hope in doing so- for as Eleanor Roosevelt once said “ the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of dreams”
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