World peace is something I've always been hopeful about. For as long as I can remember, since I was a child and before I saw how cruel the world can be, I would always ask for world peace on birthday wishes and letters to Santa. There are a few times/things when I have strong faith or hope in, and this is one of them.
I always thought people were nice and friendly. Then I slowly started learning about war. September 11, I didn't understand it. I learned that just how in kinder we fight for the best crayons, people in the world fight harder over bigger things. And those fights unfortunately end up being fatal.
I don't like the fact that as the years go by, many of us live in fear. Ironically living in the land of the free. And as much as I don't want to, I do live in fear. I hear a loud noise, I hear someone screaming, I immediately think I have to run and hide somewhere. I don't want to live like that, we shouldn't have to live like that. Living in fear is basically letting the enemy win. I'm only 20 years old, and as I'm starting to realize what it is I want in life I have many more fears. I used to think that only people involved in crimes would "pay the price". But no. Innocent lives have been taken in the most normal situations. Theaters, schools, even church where it's considered a place of respect. And it's not just in places like Mexico or Colombia. It's in our own homeland, sometimes in our own city!
If and when I have kids, that will become a bigger worry. Wondering if my children are safe in school. When I was a kid, the only drills we were taught were "stop, drop, and roll" and going under the tables protecting our heads. Students now are being taught what to do in case "a dangerous person comes to school". Whether kids understand the situation or not, it's already stealing their innocence. Earlier this year LAUSD closed all schools due to bomb threats. A tweet became viral after a teen said he picked up his little sister from school, after his little sister asked what was happening he simply said it was because he missed her and wanted to spend time with her. A teacher in Mexico singing to her students which were on the floor while a shooting was happening outside. A mom who posted a picture of her 3 year old daughter standing on top of the toilet. At first the mom thinking this was adorable and innocent, later realizing her daughter was showing what they had to do if they need to hide from someone. As kids, my brothers and I were told that we go to school to learn and make friends and have fun. The biggest worry for parents was what color (behavior) card their child got for the day.
Why can't the news ever show good and happy things. Seems like every day we are further and further away from world peace. It's not just steps that are being taken back, it's miles. If we were ever close to it, we're sooo far now. I want to believe and I continue being a firm believer that one day we won't have as many wars, as many killings, as many innocent lives being taken away. It can be me being "stupid", or me just having a lot of faith. I'm not going to deny that we're in a pretty bad place. People (including myself) say that life sucks and life has horrible things. But that's not really true. Life is beautiful. You experience many wonderful things such as friendships, relationships, family, nature, celebrations, achievements, etc. Unfortunately there is an obstacle that every day seems to get bigger and bigger. I wish I knew how to make a difference. I wish we could all work together and bring people together to be understanding and even if we're not all friends, we can at least learn to respect one another.
As I said, life is beautiful. Instead of fighting, why can't we celebrate our differences? Many things such as sports and food are blind to culture. Soccer brings people together, and even though we go for opposing teams in the end we're all there for the same reason. Think about the "commercial" Regal Cinemas have before a movie starts. Where different people are arriving to the theater and talking about snacks and what movie they're watching. Different color, ethnicity, and age. But once the lights go down, they're all the same. Same thing with food, we all love to try food from different cultures. Trying tortas ahogadas from Mexico, eating panes con pollo from El Salvador, ravioli from Italy, ramen from Japan, etc. We don't discriminate when it comes to that, why do we discriminate with other things?
I wish we could share ideas and traditions and recipes. I wish we could celebrate each other's differences instead of killing one another. I wish we could be understanding of things. I wish we could go out without fearing we won't come back home. I wish I wouldn't grow more scared every Fourth of July. The world and life isn't ugly, people make it like that. If you have any doubts, go to a park, lake, admire nature for a bit, hang out with friends and family, play with animals. We have beautiful things around us, and I wish that beauty could continue to grow so we won't have a lot of hurt around us.
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