With all of the tragedy that has happened recently, not just in our country, but in the world, not just last week, but in my lifetime, in your life time, in my future children's lifetime, I felt the need to share a poem I wrote for my writing class. We all have wishes in this world, and I created a poem about my own. Also, here is a video for you to follow along. I believe in this poem and believe we all need to have hope and to keep wishing for these things, even if they seem extremely far out of reach.

Upon a star ★

I wish life were different

I wish people didn’t die

Didn’t suffer

Didn’t kill others or themselves

I wish for some,

seeing wasn’t believing

I wish the stories that started with

“once upon a time” were actually true

And that depression never happened a

I wish the worst addiction in this world

Was an addiction to loving your family

Opposed to loving your family less,

Less than alcohol or painkillers in a baggie you got on the corner

I wish college were free

I wish the color of your skin did not matter to others

As well as the person you choose to love and be with

I wish people were not ashamed to drop their baby off at an orphanage

instead of abandoning them on the side of the road

I wish people didn’t lose loved ones

That news was always happy

And people only cried because they were too overjoyed

I wish more people thought

that you didn’t have to get drunk to have a good time

I wish abduction, rape, and torture

were something only the mind could imagine

and not actually experience

I wish no one judged you

based on the way you look

what religion you are

Or where you come from

I wish you could never get your hopes up

I wish death were a complete myth

And every dream you had was possible

And was in fact, going to come true

I wish abuse

physically

mentally

and emotionally

were nonexistent

I wish your kid’s lives, no matter what,

Were going to be better than the one you had

I wish divorce didn't have to tear relationships to the ground

I wish the ones you loved never could hurt you

I wish when you wished upon a star,

it probably wasn’t already dead

because they don’t go out for years here on earth

I wish I still believed in Santa

and that reindeers could really soar

I wish for world peace

Doesn’t every body?

I wish for every child laying up at night

Longing for a family

to receive one

I wish war was just a card game

I wish for every person lost in this world to be found

I wish every stomach got fed

Every head had a pillow

And every sickness could be cured

I wish missing a person was not possible

As well as feeling alone

I wish money wasn’t an object

I wish no one cared what you did with your body,

be it pro life or pro choice, transgender or not

Why?

Because its yours

I wish the homeless found a home

And family and friends were always going to be there for you

Like they always said they would

I wish cars were made of a softer structure

That couldn’t injure or kill

I wish cancer did not exist

Ever

because I’d still have my best friend

I wish that the twin towers were still standing

Because if we had world peace,

there would be no such thing as terrorism

I wish that there was not a single bad thought in your mind

When you went to a big public event

Or when you sat in your desk in class

Because the thought of a gun shot or Bomb going off

in what is suppose to be a safe place

scares us all

I wish the people you looked up to as a kid remained your

heroes, forever

But that's a rarity

I wish no one risked their lives every single day

Like when they cross a street

get on a plane

a train

or even wake up

I wish the stories that end with

“and they lived happily every after” were true too

I wish upon that star

Be it dead or alive

for all this and more.

Don’t you?