Committing to Ourselves
As a woman of today’s world, I find it increasingly harder to commit to a life where I know that I will constantly be under attack. I have come to notice that this is a problem that most men and women suffer; we have to constantly be on defense. Sometimes life can make us wonder if it is worth it to continue to have the fighting spirit or should we just give up?My family and I love to sit around and talk. We talk about life, politics, education, love, you name it. Recently, we were having a conversation about how hard it is in today’s work force; how tough it is for people to get jobs. Young people are having trouble getting jobs because employers believe they are all lazy, irresponsible and unreliable. They can’t trust young people. Some think we lack loyalty and that we can be incompetent at times. Women are unreliable too. Women are having problems because employers fear that at any moment they can get married, get pregnant or, simply, get cramps and stop coming in to work. So for a young woman as myself, what am I to do in this ignorant society?
We ARE a very different generation, we even have our own distinct culture and, as such, we have new problems and vices as well as new things to offer. Young people of today have new and innovating ideas. We have a new way of looking at things and we can bring in new perspective to a job that no one but someone from this era can bring. The most important hope that I have for my generation is that, even when things are as hard and sometimes grim as they are, we do not give up so easily. I would like to think of us as survivors. We have been attacked physically and emotionally in ways that our grandparents had never thought we would. We survived attacks on our countries, we are surviving a war that seems ceaseless at this point and we will survive each other and any one that sets barriers before us.
Hope and the will to keep on fighting are the two things that can never leave us. Every time I think 
of how difficult this world is getting, for me, for young people, for women and even for men, I remember how important it is to not give up because the moment we do we give up on ourselves. I always tell my younger brother, “Be careful with the decisions that you make now when you are young because they will define every aspect of the man you will become. Don’t cheat your future self from what he… you deserve.” It is strange to think of the person that I am now and the person I will become as two different people but in a way, we are different. It is just like looking back at the person that I used to be when I was younger and comparing her to the person I am now; I see a very different me.
I decided to be careful about my decisions and to keep on fighting for my person and my future self was when my ‘racist’ grandfather told me he had a black girlfriend. He said to me, “I was just like you when I was young, so passionate about so many issues. I dated a black girl once. When I told my mom she said that I was wasting my time with that Black girl and that I should make my race better not worse. I got so mad at her. I began yelling at her and saying that I was going to marry her and that she should be ashamed because her mother was black. I was so mad, but, in the end, I grew up and I realized that she was right. I had to be realistic and I chose someone that’s right so that our children would be right. That’s just how the world works; you can’t go against the society you live in forever.” It is very difficult for me to think that I could ever change my beliefs so drastically but sadly a lot of people let themselves get lost and change for the worst. The thing is that changing in that way is my choice and I can decide not to loose myself. I could never conform to the unethical ideals of my society like he did. Society has a way for setting rules and labels for the type of people that we “should” to be. This is why I decided not to let the erroneous ideals of others change the person that I am or will become. We have to keep fighting. We have to be a generation that fights for ourselves because otherwise we will conform to all the things that we are against. If we don’t fight for ourselves, if we don’t believe in ourselves, if we don’t commit to who we are, how do we ever expect to commit to someone else?
Another characteristic of our generation is how quickly our world is changing and, if we are not committed to ourselves and making ourselves better, how can we ever make our relationships work? We have to commit to ourselves before we can commit to someone else. When we look at our present selves and our future selves, they will be two different people but we have to decide how different they are going to be otherwise we risk becoming someone we or our loved ones might not like. This is why many of people are scared of marriage because they are afraid of loosing themselves; of loosing the essence of who they are. We need to make the decision to not let it happen; otherwise, imagine the problems you will face being married to someone that is no longer your match. Imagine yourself married and twenty years later you look in the mirror and see someone that is completely different. Imagine looking at the person lying next to you and seeing someone completely different to whom you first fell in love with, someone you no longer recognize and whom you no longer love.
It is sad to think that I could become the type of person that I am now against. I will continue to fight so that what happened to grandpa does not happen to me; I refuse to loose myself. I will not give up or conform to society’s ideals about women, marriage, youth, seniors or anything they wish to categorize me as. We cannot give up. We must be strong. Will this entire struggle be worth it in the end? I don’t know what the future holds but I know that I am worth it, my future is worth it and that I will never can never give up on being me. Will you?
Our generation is going to be faced with a very big challenge. We need to watch ourselves this New Year and every upcoming year that approaches because any decision that we make can shape the person we might become. Commit to being yourself and don’t ever give up on her.
Ana "The Guru"
of how difficult this world is getting, for me, for young people, for women and even for men, I remember how important it is to not give up because the moment we do we give up on ourselves. I always tell my younger brother, “Be careful with the decisions that you make now when you are young because they will define every aspect of the man you will become. Don’t cheat your future self from what he… you deserve.” It is strange to think of the person that I am now and the person I will become as two different people but in a way, we are different. It is just like looking back at the person that I used to be when I was younger and comparing her to the person I am now; I see a very different me.I decided to be careful about my decisions and to keep on fighting for my person and my future self was when my ‘racist’ grandfather told me he had a black girlfriend. He said to me, “I was just like you when I was young, so passionate about so many issues. I dated a black girl once. When I told my mom she said that I was wasting my time with that Black girl and that I should make my race better not worse. I got so mad at her. I began yelling at her and saying that I was going to marry her and that she should be ashamed because her mother was black. I was so mad, but, in the end, I grew up and I realized that she was right. I had to be realistic and I chose someone that’s right so that our children would be right. That’s just how the world works; you can’t go against the society you live in forever.” It is very difficult for me to think that I could ever change my beliefs so drastically but sadly a lot of people let themselves get lost and change for the worst. The thing is that changing in that way is my choice and I can decide not to loose myself. I could never conform to the unethical ideals of my society like he did. Society has a way for setting rules and labels for the type of people that we “should” to be. This is why I decided not to let the erroneous ideals of others change the person that I am or will become. We have to keep fighting. We have to be a generation that fights for ourselves because otherwise we will conform to all the things that we are against. If we don’t fight for ourselves, if we don’t believe in ourselves, if we don’t commit to who we are, how do we ever expect to commit to someone else?
Another characteristic of our generation is how quickly our world is changing and, if we are not committed to ourselves and making ourselves better, how can we ever make our relationships work? We have to commit to ourselves before we can commit to someone else. When we look at our present selves and our future selves, they will be two different people but we have to decide how different they are going to be otherwise we risk becoming someone we or our loved ones might not like. This is why many of people are scared of marriage because they are afraid of loosing themselves; of loosing the essence of who they are. We need to make the decision to not let it happen; otherwise, imagine the problems you will face being married to someone that is no longer your match. Imagine yourself married and twenty years later you look in the mirror and see someone that is completely different. Imagine looking at the person lying next to you and seeing someone completely different to whom you first fell in love with, someone you no longer recognize and whom you no longer love.
It is sad to think that I could become the type of person that I am now against. I will continue to fight so that what happened to grandpa does not happen to me; I refuse to loose myself. I will not give up or conform to society’s ideals about women, marriage, youth, seniors or anything they wish to categorize me as. We cannot give up. We must be strong. Will this entire struggle be worth it in the end? I don’t know what the future holds but I know that I am worth it, my future is worth it and that I will never can never give up on being me. Will you?
Our generation is going to be faced with a very big challenge. We need to watch ourselves this New Year and every upcoming year that approaches because any decision that we make can shape the person we might become. Commit to being yourself and don’t ever give up on her.
Ana "The Guru"
LWC
posted by anbiator @ 12:00 AM
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