Living in a world that feeds off of hysteria and pessimism, I often find myself thinking about what kind of life I myself would like to lead. If the world is really as bad as everyone says it is, how on earth am I ever going to find peace in it? A while back I read a blog, this blog was designed to put down everyone and everything that the writer deemed to be 'unworthy'. Imagine that, this person has created an entire blog just to tell the world how much they hate it. This particular blogger appointed themselves to be the 'judge of everything,' and sat upon a throne criticizing and demeaning every person who had ever shown forth an optimistic or positive opinion.
While I am sad for this person, knowing that one day (when and if they grow up) they will feel absolutely humiliated for saying such stupid things online; I do understand why this person has become that way.
We have allowed pessimism to rule our lives for too long. We have put our emotions into the media, and we let them dictate everything we should be feeling. Ebola is running rampant, HIDE! GET GAS MASKS! WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE, AND IT'S OBAMA'S FAULT! The government is taking over our lives, DON'T ASSOCIATE WITH ANYONE FROM THE OPPOSITE POLITICAL PARTY! This church (even though I'm not associated with it in any way) said something that I don't agree with: TORCH ALL THE BELIEVERS! Honestly, where have we let ourselves go? Didn't we used to fight for a reason? wasn't there a common dream between all people to find a greater good? The media has done an excellent job at destroying the voice of the people. Rather than banning together to make good things happen, we quarrel amongst ourselves. We have given up fighting together, and now we fight each other. What a stunning tactic, we as a society have been lulled into a state of damning complacency; there will be no fight from us now, we just accept what the world will put upon us.
We have stopped dreaming and we now remain stagnant; our world is falling apart because we have nothing to look forward to each day. We have settled into poverty and debt, and we just accept that life must be that way, and we don't even try to change it now.
I remember a poster on my high school history teachers wall, this poster stated: "If you don't like something, Change it. If you can't change it, Change yourself." This poster stuck with me, even through my own dark times. I always knew that if there was something about my situation I absolutely hated, then it was ME who had the power to change it. Whether I changed the circumstances, or my attitude toward the situation, it was in MY POWER. Have I always abided by this rule? No, but I have always known of its veracity.
I can't change what anyone else does with their lives, but I can change what I do with mine. If I want to make a million dollars, well, I'm going to do it. If I want to travel the world, I will find a way to do it. I can only do what I tell myself I can do. I'm a Petersen for Petes sake, and when someone tells us we can't do something we often do it just to prove them wrong. Mostly, we listen to the people who tell us we can, not the people who tell us we can't. Our task is not impossible, we are good enough to accomplish the task!
I am grateful for the family and friends I have who tell me that I can, a support system who taught me to do hard things and never give up!
To that self appointed blogger I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am sorry that you have given up. I am sorry that you are letting the world run your life instead of acting for yourself. I do not know at what point you gave up your free agency to act for yourself, but I hope one day you will find it again. I hope one day, the world will let optimism and hope rule their decisions instead of hate and fear.
Be grateful, and learn to love again, it's your life....do something with it.
