(Photo courtesy of Gaijinpotblog.com) A cherry blossom tree in Japan. “…life is beautiful yet very short.”
Jesse Nguyen
Connector Editor
Society demands that everyone performs their role in life on a daily basis. I perform my role as a student, submitting assignments (usually) on time, interacting with my peers, and learning from my professors. I worry about the quality of my work, ensuring I have researched a topic thoroughly and that my work is devoid of any glaring mistakes.
I also have the role of a friend, making others laugh, creating moments of joy and forming meaningful connections. These roles that I perform are vital to me and those around me, and I value the time and effort I have put into these roles. But the backdrop behind all these roles is disturbing, dark, and confusing to say the least.
The backdrop being the world we live in. There is not a day that goes by without something horrific occurring. We see it everywhere, murders fueled by hatred, cities getting leveled, innocents burning, entire ecosystems disappearing, policies being enacted that do nothing but harm our livelihood.
We live in a time of uncertainty. I find it more common that the average person walks with a dark cloud over their head, asking themselves: Will I be able to marry who I want? Am I able to get a job after I graduate? How will I afford rent and groceries this month? Will I be able to wear what I want and walk down the street, without fear of harassment or violence?
If you have these thoughts, let me reassure you: it’s natural. You’re human. Humans are simple creatures, and I believe we were never meant to be exposed to this absolute abundance of information at our fingertips. While we can experience the beauty and vastness of the world through our screens, that also comes with us experiencing its dark corruption and evilness.
What I’ve been meaning to say is, all of these worries and all of these world events happen at the same time as everyone’s performance. Despite our human struggle of living in uncertain times, the world keeps spinning, and the clock never stops ticking. Eventually, I will have to wake up, go to class, and perform my role as a student. In the back of my mind, I still think about these world events, and how one day these events might reach me. But like many other people, I carry on about my day, performing my role to the best of my ability.
It makes you wonder, how do we do it? By all accounts, all of us should have given up and collapsed by this point. We were never meant to be put under such immense stress and pressure. But we’re miraculously still standing, it’s quite amazing how resilient we can be.
It could be our desire for meaning, or just our survival instinct for self preservation. I’d like to think it’s because of those who surround us. They remind us, that despite the world being on fire, not everyone is fanning the flames.
