|
By: C. Muro  As soon as we start school, our lives changes and we start noticing something called uncertainty. Exams start and with them comes the usual questions of: "Did I study enough? Did I pass? How many answers did I get right?" And the next few days are full of worry, anxiety, and it might seem unbearable waiting for the results. In moments like this, we are faced with the unknown, where there is nothing we can do, except to take a leap into this dark, concealed abyss, and hope we make it to the other side.
As we get older the stakes are higher. College applications are the next big step. You send out essays, documents, you are interviewed and hold on tightly to your dreams of a future you can't yet see, but you take this jump anyway and pray to get to where you have wished for so long. A few years later, we start our journey in the work world where a job interview feels like yet another exam. Hands shaking, trembling hands, but you pretend you are confident and defy the power the unknown holds. By trying to take matter into your own hands, you long to have some control over the mysterious force that works around us, but you must still step forward trusting there will be ground to be stepped on, leaping into the abyss one more time. The unknown does not limit itself to school or careers. It comes into our deepest feelings and personal lives. When loved ones get ill, we turn to hope. Even though doctors try their best, even science reaches its limits. In those moments, we turn to something greater: faith, fate, prayer, or simply the wish everything will turn out fine. We resort to the concealed energy because there is nothing we could possibly do. As life goes on, we tend to plan more and hope to leap less. We study, we prepare, but there is one last big leap that waits for us all. The one nobody has ever returned from. Death is the ultimate unknown. As grim as this might sound, it is the truth. We know what happens to your body when we pass away, but what about to our soul? Heaven? Hell? Reincarnation? Nothingness? No one knows for sure, that is part of its mysticism, but that might just be the whole point. Our very last leap into the abyss might feel more unknown than our first ones. Floating in oblivion. Throughout life, we attempt to control many things, but the future never comes with warnings or guarantees. The unknown will always be there. At times it'll be terrifying, thrilling, emotional, but always inevitable. The unknown has many names; some call it God, others destiny, luck, purpose. Whatever name we call it, we all rely on it at some point. We face it and still find one more glimpse of hope to keep on leaping from abyss into abyss.
0 Comments
By J. McManus  You’ve probably heard about climate change. Global warming, carbon emissions and greenhouse gas emissions: the world gets warmer by the day. How much of the work put in against climate change do you actually believe in? The issue with making the world more sustainable is not a lack of visibility of the cause, nor the absence of a solution, but rather the failure to effectively implement many of these tactics. Many skeptics do not even believe that there is a temperature issue in the world since they have not measured it or actively noticed it every day despite overwhelming amounts of scientific data backing up its existence. The future of the world lies in the hands of the younger generation. However, how will anything be resolved if there is no unanimous acknowledgement of the dire consequences of tomorrow due to the lack of action today?
Currently, there are several potential outcomes for what the times ahead will hold. In an idealistic world, immediate and efficient action will be taken by the global population to avoid further temperature rises. In this reality, everyone becomes climate-sensitive and decisions are based on their sustainability impacts rather than their immediate economic gain. In the pessimistic scenario we are currently arriving at, there will be irreversible damages not only in relation to temperature but also greenhouse gas influences on the environment. Our children and their future children will inherit our tragic legacy and will be subject to their horrors on a daily basis with limited resources. Another option includes a partial solution such as carbon sequestration in localized areas for the rich who can afford the technology required for this, while the poor suffer. In these last two options, social justice will continue to be directly affected by financial inequality, for money will be used to protect those who pay for a better quality of living, their businesses and their lifestyle, promoting an utter lack of self-awareness and further expanding the gap in social disparity. Simply put, the future is unknown, and the power is in the hands of those who have influence to change the view of the masses and shed light and perspective upon the consequences for our successors. Will we be remembered as a revolutionary generation who saved the world, or the generation who condemned it? |