Being completely transparent, this past semester has been one of the most difficult and challenging semesters of my life. You know when something happens, and then another thing happens and before you know it things just don't stop happening? And you're in a weird place. You don't feel like yourself. And life gets hard.
Your classes demand too much, you're overwhelmed by the organizations and passions that bring you the most joy, things happen to you that are out of your control. People hurt you or leave you, things change. People die or you start questioning yourself and your abilities. You start wondering what you've done wrong and why the universe enjoys knocking you down. And it's only during this time that I realized that people are always struggling and going through something impossible. Something painful or difficult, even when I'm not.
That's why we have to support each other. Not ask questions or doubt someone's pain, not ignore them to handle it on their own, and definitely not act like we never noticed in the first place.
Life gets all of us down. It's hard and it hurts. It breaks us, sometimes. And we can't get up on our own.
It breaks my heart to see that people often times add to the pain of others. Step on them while they're down in order to alleviate their own ambitions. Unfairly. Without compassion.
Humans bring enough pain into this world. We lie and we cheat and we lash out. The problem with that is under normal circumstances, people would tolerate it, or even expect it. But when someone is fragile, hurting and broken, those actions have astronomical effects. Those actions break people's hearts. Destroy their souls and nine times out of 10 we don't even notice it.
And that's what we have to start doing. We can't hate each other any longer because of what we look like or what we believe. We can't debate what's right and wrong. We can't maliciously criticize or say cruel jokes. We can't laugh at people's pain. We can't preach hate or intolerance.
We have to learn to, at the very least, have compassion for each other. Have an underlying motive of love. We have to learn how to pick each other up. Embrace each other. We have to learn how to be a shoulder to cry on.
Because I know people tell you, the world tells you, that strength is stoic. Strength is controlling your emotions. Not crying. Showing no compassion. But that's just not true.
Strength is picking each other up. It's having open arms and an open heart. It's loving people who aren't like us.
Strength isn't preaching hate. It isn't trying to keep people out. Or belittle and condescend.
That's the weakest thing we could ever do.
