This week, I’m sharing a piece I wrote shortly after my 23rd birthday in 2010. I was becoming more aware of how quickly the world was changing, and this awareness was compounded by the loss of the elderly people who raised me. There were fewer people around who remembered a time before the shifts I noticed, and it seemed people were quick to accept changes that I didn’t look upon optimistically. It became clear that the world I thought I lived in, a world that might have existed before my time, was now a fallacy. I desperately wanted to be wrong in my observations, but I could not prevent myself from becoming jaded and realizing the innocence I held onto would lead to more disappointment.
Note: Many of the pieces I wrote in my early 20s were written in my style of speech, with part of my intention being to read them aloud. This piece has received minor edits to make it easier to read versus listen to.
“It’s painful accepting the truth: I don’t live in the world I thought I did. I thought I lived in a world filled with respect, principles, and problem solving. I live in a world of hypocrisy, a world with broken principles, and legal limitations running astray.
It’s challenging adapting to the ways of the world I’ve found myself living in. Still, I’m learning to accept “Life isn’t fair,” and I’m slowly getting over everyone’s passive acceptance of this; slowly and reluctantly getting used to “Life isn’t fair” as a valid response to continuous injustice. “Life isn’t fair” is an indirect and intangible excuse, an excuse to cover up the obvious - life isn’t fair and it should be, but we don’t know how to make it so.
I live in a world running away from private existence, and away from Friendship; a world where Big Tech sold and sells personal information (that you once protected and considered private) to anyone with enough money; a world where the word Friendship has been diluted by its use in mass communication, lumping in friends with people who don’t care about you any more than an acquaintance does.
I live in a world where the lines of our civil servant’s duties have been so swayed and compromised, they surpass and suppress more than they serve, uplift, and protect.
They’ll ticket someone for not having a “new tag registration,” even if the only reason a person could not renew his car registration fast enough was because he got laid off and has no cash. This leads to a revoked license, thereby cutting the individual off from a means of income. Who is this ticket helping?
I don’t wish to be angry, I’d like to let it go, but these injustices have touched me so - in ways I never knew possible.”
I’ve been thinking about this piece everyday recently. I know it isn’t very happy. Unfortunately, there was and is a lot to be angry about with the state of the world. At 23, I used writing as a tool to help me itemize and sort my grievances so I could articulate them to the best of my ability. This was an effort to separate my anger from my drive to find solutions to the problems I saw.
This process is what I call “positivity,” one of the most powerful tools I have access to.
Anger is an emotion, and emotions are temporary (I write more about this in my book for anyone who is interested). The choices we make have a long-lasting impact and therefore must be made with a level head and precision - not in the heat of the moment, driven by emotionality.
I decided to share this piece because over a decade later, my anger has not subsided. I have never acted upon my anger, but I do not ignore it either. Rather than accept the state of the world I live in along with the fire of anger it lights within me, I choose to focus on finding solutions and encouraging others to do the same.
My positivity is supported by patience: The understanding that my mission will take time to accomplish.
Although I’ve known of injustice and hypocrisy for most of my life, I still believe there is a reason to see the best in the world around me. If you find yourself frustrated by greed, corruption, and other ills running rampant, know that you are not alone, and there is something you can do. If we focus on finding solutions together, we can foster a better world.
More from Life’s Toolbox & Marcus Bridgewater
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