We need to live. The world is there, wide open, for us. Let’s stop learning about cultures on the news, and go to experience them, even if we have no more than two bucks in our bank account. We don’t have to cross the planet, we can cross the street; talk to our neighbor, listen to our grandpa describe how was the world in black and white. Let’s listen to stories, that no story is the same.
Let’s forget about courses and classes for a while. About credits and GPA. Let’s learn from the experience. Take pictures. Let’s take pictures until we figure out the perfect angle, try a thousand times until we nail the use of light. Grab a book. Let’s acquire vocabulary by reading. Learn how to read between the lines, not only of a paper, but between the lines of what the people say. Learn to decode what the eyes really mean more than words. Write. Let’s write to take everything out. Put down what’s going on, because sometimes writing can make things clearer.
Let’s cultivate the time we spend alone, trying to be in peace with ourselves; be quiet, ease our minds and understand. And then yes, shout. Say everything we feel out loud, let’s not keep anything to ourselves. Let’s tell our friends what’s bothering us. Let’s tell our parents how much we love them. Don’t be afraid. We are not less of a man if we cry out loud, and we are not less of a woman if we don’t cry at all.
Protest. Let’s protest against what we don’t think is fair. Let’s protest against labels, against “black” or “white”, “fat” or “skinny”, “democrat” or “republican”. We are not those things, we are people. Get it? People, ALL of us. Let’s love and support each other.
Talk, shout, discuss. Yes, discuss. Let’s discuss to acquire new perspectives and points of view. Let’s discuss with the ones who don’t share our opinions. But be careful, because discuss and fight are not the same. Discuss is being open and embrace the differences. Fight for it, is believing that we have the power to revoke ideas because something makes us superior. Just don’t. We are not better than anyone. Let’s instead, help the one that wants to be better. Let’s offer our hand to anyone, because this life is made to be lived in company, not competition.
But most important of all, be happy. Let’s put ourselves first every now and then, because being happy changes our surroundings, and happiness, believe it or not, is contagious. And today, with everything that’s going on in the world, we need to spread that happiness more than ever.
