“The sun will come out tomorrow.” -Annie.
Growing up, whenever things were a little rough people would always tell me to have hope because tomorrow would be better.
The summer after my eighth grade year, I was in a production of Annie. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now as a senior in high school, having grown and learned, I realized that if a twelve year old orphaned girl in Great Depression-era New York can sing about how things will always get better, if only you hold out for tomorrow, then I should be able to have a little bit of optimism. Right?
Now, I'm not an optimistic person. I haven't been for a really long time. When you're a child, it is so easy to ignore the world and it’s problems because they aren’t yours to worry about. But, once you have seen them for the first time, you can never unsee them.
At seven years old, I would not have cared that over 42,000 Americans die of suicide each year. I would have cared more about whether I was getting that new toy for Christmas that year. I probably didn’t have much a sense of what death was, let alone suicide.
But at 17, having learned what suicide is, having seen how it can affect people, families, and even communities; I care very much.
It’s hard to be optimistic in a world where a teenager who takes their own life becomes a statistic instead of a tragedy.
How are any of us supposed to believe that the sun truly will come out tomorrow when today looks so bleak?
How am I supposed to be optimistic about my life and where it’s headed when all around me I see those touched by the claws of horrific events?
In Orlando on June twelfth, 2016, a lone man opened fire in an Orlando nightclub. The massacre left 49 people dead, 53 more hurt, and an entire community in a state of absolute grief.
How does a community move on from a hate crime such as that?
Better yet, how does the world move on from events the like the holocaust and slavery?
The answer to that is optimism. It is the hope that we, as citizens of the world, can learn from the mistakes of our predecessors. It is the hope that we will never make those mistakes again.
So, we do move forward. We move forward, and we grow and learn as a people because this is the only way that we can create a better tomorrow.
There are hundreds of thousands of people working to make the world a better place for those around them. Just last week, a church came to my neighborhood and helped a woman clear her yard of dead bushes and fallen branches because she was unable to do it for herself.
Just yesterday, I listened to speeches by people who see the world for what it is and still have hope for a better future. A better future that we, as a generation, will shape. It is our turn to make a better tomorrow. All we have to do is get through today.
So, you asked me what I thought optimism provided for the world.
Well here's my answer.
Optimism brings the world a hope for a better tomorrow no matter how bad today is.
And remember, tomorrow is only a day away.
