We see it everywhere today: the negativity, the pessimism, the glass-half-empty mindsets of the people around us.
More times than I can count I've listened to opinions that stem from these mindsets. "We're living in the end times," and "The world is doomed." The grievances of this 'millennial' generation are endlessly observed and described. In return, the young people respond with the atrocities committed by the older generation. An eternal circle going round and round, creating nothing but more negativity.
We see poverty, hatred, violence, and depression and think to ourselves "Is that all there ever is?" The hopelessness of this world is tangible. Yet, I am still convinced that humanity has nothing but a bright future ahead of it. I am not speaking of some far-off Utopian world. My confidence that the world will one day be an amazing place is birthed from the fact that it already is. I am a firm believer that people are fundamentally good and hold love in their hearts. I know this because I've seen it. I see it every day.
There is a stoplight I pass by every day on my way to work. It's nearly always red, so I'm stopped there frequently. It's a popular place for homeless men and women to stand. Their cardboard signs read "Anything helps" and "God bless." It's easy to see these signs and wonder where the kindness of the world has gone and to overlook all the hands reaching out of car windows to hand water and help to the people behind the cardboard. I see at least one every time I'm at that red light.
Next time you're out in the world, make an effort to pay attention to how many kind acts you see. Even things as small as a smile, or holding open a door. I promise you that you will find no shortage. The news makes it very easy to view humans at their worst. Kindness is more commonplace than violence, so love doesn't often make headlines. But stepping away from the TV, looking up from your phone, and having genuine interactions with people in a place of compassion will help you to realize that people nearly always have honest intentions.
I can't, and won't, get behind the idea that young people today make up a selfish, entitled, and hateful generation. I look around at my peers and see incredible amounts of drive, acceptance, and open-mindedness. I see students rising up to create a world where love is the norm. Ignoring your thoughts on the political issue, look at the survivors of the Parkland shooting: high school students who built an entire movement from the ground up so that no others would experience the pain they did.
There's a song by OneRepublic that goes "I get lost in the beauty / Of everything I see / The world ain't as half as bad / As they paint it to be / If all the sons / all the daughters / Stopped to take it in / Well hopefully the hate subsides and the love can begin" and I feel those lyrics in a very real way. Striving to see beauty in the world has made me realize you don't have to look very far to see it.
I set out to describe to you why I still feel comfortable being an optimist in 2018. I look at the progress the world has made since its inception. The moral compass of the world has been steadily turning north and continues to do so today. By no means have we reached a place where we can stop and say "Now the world is perfect." However, when you look at the ways the world has changed from a darkly violent place to one where we're learning to accept and help others, you can see that the path we are taking is not one towards destruction, but towards love.
