Some things are out of our control, but living every day in a way that opposes hate is not one of these. "Be the change you wish to see in the world" is something we've grown up hearing but something that doesn't always seem so possible. But what we often forget is that change starts from small, every day actions- from the way we live our lives, actions that then ripple outwards. You don’t have to be a politician to be kind to your neighbors, to take a second and hold the door open for someone, to speak out against an inappropriate remark that you hear voiced against another individual.
While I can never understand why some people cannot handle coexisting with those who cause no harm to them but are simply different and why the majority of human groups are seen as lesser groups, it is important to demonstrate through the way we live our lives that coexisting and seeing everyone as a human first and any other identity second is, in fact, possible and is expected and right. Despite my inability to relate to the way certain people see and interact with the world, I still believe that very few people in the world are truly evil. Everyone’s mentalities are influenced by the way they’ve grown up and who they’ve grown up around, and essentially everyone is living in various microcosms of the world at large. Some people can’t see beyond the microcosm they’ve grown up in.
When someone dies, the common message is not to mourn them but to live life the best possible way because that is what they would have wanted. With the death of hope for many people, it is important not to forget this sentiment and to live in the best way possible, forging the world of tomorrow that is truly great and not Donald Trump “great.” While faced with the many things that are not in our power to change, we must not forget the many things that are.
A quote from one of my favorite books reads, “My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”(David Mitchell). Whenever it seems that you are but an insignificant drop, remember that you are part of an ocean.
