Listen Up

I look out into the world and what do I see?  I see unfulfilled potential staring back at me.  I see rooms full of fake people and fake faces.  I see peers acting like someone they’re not.  I see the world copying others instead of expressing their original selves.  I see excuses floating around like maple seeds.  I see the words like shards of glass that cause pain and hurt to others.  I see extreme jealousy and revolving gossip that ensnares us all.  I see lies and cover-ups worn like a permanent mask.  I see disrespect and deceit that has corrupted the mind.  I see the effect of it all like falling dominos.  But I am still trying to understand, UNDERSTAND how society became this way.  How we all conformed to what was portrayed as “cool.”  How we strived to be popular, either among the crowd or our friends.  How we listened to the lies and took it as the truth.  How we forgot who we were and became strangers to ourselves.  How we tried not to care and act like it was nothing.  How we sit on the sidelines and watch classmates suffer...or better yet, not even notice them at all.  How we keep everyone invisible except those who are deemed acceptable.  How we move on with our lives in ways that hurt us in the end.  How we neglect to realize the damage that’s been done.  How we forget that we are not better than our fellow man, we all make mistakes and bad choices.  How people gave in when the odds were stacked against them.  How we were only kind if it benefited ourselves.  How we were no longer a friend to everyone.  How we expect so much of ourselves and others that we lose sight of what truly matters.  How we needed the appreciation of others in order to move on.  How we cared more about what others thought of us rather than what we thought of ourselves.  How we didn’t stick together through thick and thin.  How we followed our mind more than the feeling in our heart.  How we fear our insecurities instead of accepting our flaws and embellishing them.  How we try to hide our feelings, but end up hiding ourselves from the world in the process.  How we define someone’s character based on personal achievements, wealth, and status, and not by their actions.  How we don’t taste our own words before spitting them out.  How we live in a prison of the mind that causes us to care about what people think.  How we neglect the fact that our choices have consequences.  How we only seem to accept our mistakes and not learn from them.  How we don’t realize that it’s always the little things that mean the most in the end.  How we hold onto a grudge and the bitterness with it, never learning to forgive and forget.  How we reside in the past instead of using it as a reference.  How we forget that a relationship takes the strong commitment and communication of two people, it’s not one-sided.  How we listen to reply, not to understand.  How we care more about shares on Facebook, likes on Instagram, streaks on Snapchat, and followers on Twitter than our next grade on a test.  How we care more about how we look in a photo before posting it than the person or people in that photo.  How we spend more time looking at a screen than another’s face.  How we no longer know how to communicate unless it’s through text.  How we would rather facetime than meet them in person.  How we consume ourselves by doing what others want instead of what we truly want.  How we no longer follow our dreams because it doesn’t seem feasible or we don’t dare to dream at all.  How we no longer have the tenacity that those before us had.  How we care more for things that won’t always be there instead of the things that can never be taken from us.  How we focus more on winning than we do on personal achievement.  How we judge a book by its cover without ever opening and exploring its pages.  How no one fights for what it right.  How we forget that everybody has feelings...you’re not the only one.  How we strive to be happy without understanding what being happy means.  How we bury ourselves into the people we think we should be instead of just embracing who you already are.  So, if there is an answer then please bring it forward because no longer can I sit and question.  I want answers.  I want results.  I yearn to understand why people are so cruel and how the world that was once so alive and springing with life became so dead.  

I don’t say these words lightly, they are meant to sting, for only then can change occur.  Change isn’t supposed to be comfortable, but sometimes that change is necessary.  Ponder on these words and what they mean to you.  Let them sink in, but don’t let it stop there.  Let it blossom into something better than the person you are now, and have the courage to hold fast to it.