April 5, 2022
Life is hard, though when we’re younger we don’t realize that. We just think about all the things we want to do someday, we forget about what it takes to get there. I think that’s the worst part about growing up, never knowing what life’s adventure will bring. One day I will be in the best headspace and the next I feel like the waves won’t ever stop coming. I feel like it’s nothing but pressure all the time, pressure from teachers, friends, parents, activities we love, and even more so from ourselves. I wish we could figure out a way to make life easy and enjoyable for everyone around us. I think the best way for that to happen is to understand change and accept change. Accepting change is hard, I would say so myself. I don’t like change. I don’t like the way it feels, the way it makes us think, and especially the way our mind conceives it. As humans, we can’t seem to understand why change is needed even in our darkest places. Knowing that change isn’t going to take minutes or hours, even weeks, but fully connecting our minds and bodies to wanting change is what makes the process even better. In doing this alone I noticed a shift in my mindset, a shift in my behavior, and a shift in the way I look at life. Looking at myself and saying I’m committed to making myself a better person, not just for the people around me but for myself. It helped me explore what it’s like to change and be okay with the changed person I am, and the changed person I am still becoming.
From my own experience, trying to change alone sucks. It isn’t something we can just do alone, and it’s not something we’re handed. We don’t have to isolate ourselves to figure it out. Now that I’m older, I wish I could have recognized that. I wish people could have stayed with me while I was changing to find who I really was and now am. Why would we cut someone out that needed to change if they were trying to find themselves? It isn’t fair to them, being there for someone goes past just being there in just the good times. I wish there was a way for us to communicate that we need someone without it coming off as weak or as if we’re incapable of changing because we need someone to rely on. Sometimes, having someone there just to say “I’m here for you” can really help heal someone. Even just to let them know that you won’t let them fall alone. Know that changing with people makes the process better. This doesn’t have to be a group of friends. It can just be one person or someone random who you see walking, that you feel can help you understand the change you need and be the person you feel comfortable leaning on.
If there was one thing you could change about the world, what would it be? Crime? Racism? Poverty? Human trafficking? I wish there was a way to pick the worst one, but there’s not. All of these problems affect the world in different ways.
I feel some of these problems get ignored because we act as if we’re not a part of the problem then we shouldn’t have to deal with it, which isn’t true. Everyone in this world is a part of everything that happens in it: we can’t pick and choose what we do and don’t deal with. When we see problems, we should be trying to find solutions, when we see people living in poverty we should be trying to help, to make this world better. Not just for us but for the people around us. We forget to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. If that were you sleeping without a roof over your head, how would you feel if someone just walked by you like nothing was wrong? If someone were committing a hate crime would you just walk by?
Standing up for what’s right is hard, and never knowing how the people around you will take it is scary, but if no one else will try to change the community we live in, we have to be the change.
Your donation will support the student journalists of Las Vegas Academy of the Arts. Your contribution will allow us retain our independence as journalists and to purchase equipment, attend journalism conferences, and cover our annual website hosting costs.
Rayne Montgomery • May 3, 2022 at 12:45 pm
I totally love your perspective on life, do you think our feelings will different when we’re adults?