Hope. It's something that so little of us have these days. But, I've begun to think of it as a necessity. Hope is believing that things will turn out well. A quote that I think describes this the best is by Martin Luther King Jr. "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." The quote tells us, that though life can be hard, we should always have hope to guide us through our lives. In our lives, we face so many problems, but it's important that we never lose hope and keep believing in ourselves, so that when we face the next problem, we're ready. As Steve Jobs stated in his Commencement Speech at Stanford University, in 2005, "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith."
Terry Fox is an excellent advocate for hope. In school, we run for 20 minutes and hope to achieve as many laps as possible. I hate the Terry Fox run. To me, it's always been a source of aching joints, and a waste of time. But, today, while I'm typing this blogpost, I see the run in a whole new light. I've always taken Terry Fox for granted. But, Terry Fox was, much like they say in his documentaries- an extraordinary person. He was motivated. He ran 5,573 km in 143 days, all to raise money for Cancer Victims. His run was called the Marathon of Hope. And if I can't run for 20 minutes, which is less than nothing compared to what Terry Fox did- and with a prosthetic leg, what kind of person am I? So, today I make a resolution. I know, I know, resolutions are supposed to be made on December 31st at 12 am. But, I disagree. Resolutions are goals for us to live by, and we shouldn't have to wait until January 1st to make them. I resolve to never, ever underestimate the power of Terry Fox. Because, he did something great. He raised hope. Hope. Hope to find a cure. And that very same hope is still living today, because of what he did.
We discussed in Humanities about Hope being idealism. Mrs. Peters has started getting sick of the word Hope being associated with Idealism. But, we, as students, have clung to it as our definition and example. I'm getting sick of it too. But for different reasons. To me, idealism has always been defined as a pursuit of a higher principle, and despite, how good it should be, I mean, what's not great about believing in the best parts of life? Idealism still seems somewhat unreal. Mostly because with ideals, sometimes, we're believing in things that aren't exactly achievable, and it's in that way that I connect idealism as a feature of a Utopian society. By saying Hope is an example of Idealism, we encourage the idea that Hope is unreal. I argue against this idea. Hope isn't unreal, it's as real as you and me. It's not tangible, but it's still there, and it's still working invisible miracles on the people around us.
In 7th Grade, we learned about Pandora's box. Pandora's Box is often associated with danger and chaos. It was a trap, set, as Zeus's revenge on the humans because Prometheus stole fire from heaven. So, Zeus created Pandora, the first woman, and sent her off with a box. Now, Pandora was a curious girl, and she wanted to know what was in the box. I'm sure many of you have heard the popular proverb: "Curiosity killed the cat."- Ben Jonson. Well, in the story, read, curiosity released a whole lot of horrible creatures, each with a horrible feature that was unleashed on the Earth and on the humans. Fear, greed, pain and many more of the evil characteristics of life that we see to today. And, unfortunately for Pandora, there was no UNDO button. What was done was done. But, what we tend to forget is that, there was one more lonely creature in that box that came out. And its name was Hope. And though small, the creature had the power to reduce some of the suffering that went on in the world. The passage we read emphasized how Hope gave the humans a sense that they weren't completely alone, because they had Hope by their side.
Hope is much like a Marathon, but it doesn't have to be done alone. You can call it- a relay race. Hope is the baton, and the race is life. Think of your purpose in life, as passing the Hope on. You're trying to pass it to as many people as possible, without dropping, or losing it. But what we need to remember is that Hope alone is not going to do anything. It's not enough. You have to act upon your Hope too. It's the action behind the Hope that makes a difference in our world. And I'm sure, many of you are asking, how do you fight for hope? And, you're right. Hope isn't fought for. Hope is spread. Spread the hope, and build a better tomorrow.
We discussed in Humanities about Hope being idealism. Mrs. Peters has started getting sick of the word Hope being associated with Idealism. But, we, as students, have clung to it as our definition and example. I'm getting sick of it too. But for different reasons. To me, idealism has always been defined as a pursuit of a higher principle, and despite, how good it should be, I mean, what's not great about believing in the best parts of life? Idealism still seems somewhat unreal. Mostly because with ideals, sometimes, we're believing in things that aren't exactly achievable, and it's in that way that I connect idealism as a feature of a Utopian society. By saying Hope is an example of Idealism, we encourage the idea that Hope is unreal. I argue against this idea. Hope isn't unreal, it's as real as you and me. It's not tangible, but it's still there, and it's still working invisible miracles on the people around us.
In 7th Grade, we learned about Pandora's box. Pandora's Box is often associated with danger and chaos. It was a trap, set, as Zeus's revenge on the humans because Prometheus stole fire from heaven. So, Zeus created Pandora, the first woman, and sent her off with a box. Now, Pandora was a curious girl, and she wanted to know what was in the box. I'm sure many of you have heard the popular proverb: "Curiosity killed the cat."- Ben Jonson. Well, in the story, read, curiosity released a whole lot of horrible creatures, each with a horrible feature that was unleashed on the Earth and on the humans. Fear, greed, pain and many more of the evil characteristics of life that we see to today. And, unfortunately for Pandora, there was no UNDO button. What was done was done. But, what we tend to forget is that, there was one more lonely creature in that box that came out. And its name was Hope. And though small, the creature had the power to reduce some of the suffering that went on in the world. The passage we read emphasized how Hope gave the humans a sense that they weren't completely alone, because they had Hope by their side.
Hope is much like a Marathon, but it doesn't have to be done alone. You can call it- a relay race. Hope is the baton, and the race is life. Think of your purpose in life, as passing the Hope on. You're trying to pass it to as many people as possible, without dropping, or losing it. But what we need to remember is that Hope alone is not going to do anything. It's not enough. You have to act upon your Hope too. It's the action behind the Hope that makes a difference in our world. And I'm sure, many of you are asking, how do you fight for hope? And, you're right. Hope isn't fought for. Hope is spread. Spread the hope, and build a better tomorrow.
