Bold Hope for the Future Scholarship

Every time we turn on the news and look around us, it seems like the world is falling a apart at its seams. There always seems to be something violent, a natural disaster, a war, or death being broadcast for all to see and soak in. These events seem to portray the earth and the human species as doomed. Beyond these portrayals of our situation, I find inspiration and hope from something much smaller. I see hope for the world in the individual person. When I have the privilege of having deep conversations with someone, I get the chance to listen to their struggles, hopes, dreams, goals, and values. Through individual people, I have found that we are all not that different and have much in common. Regardless of race, religion, gender, disability or anything else, people seem to have similar ideals and values. This gives me hope that if each of us began to have deeper, more meaningful conversations with those around us, we could slowly but surely work together to make the world a better and happier place. Through deeper and surreal conversations, I have found that the majority of people deep down inside are reasonable, kind, and thoughtful people. This is in direct opposition to what is presented to us when it comes to larger groups and society as a whole. This oppositional presentation leads me to believe that the truth of us as human beings when it comes to one another comes from real in-person interactions and not from what is presented to us by others. Through one-on-one conversations we can learn more about each other and hope to understand what others desire. In turn, we can hope to understand more about ourselves and all grow together towards a common goal. We are flawed as a species, but we are not unredeemable. Mistakes and bad choices have been made, but that does not mean that we cannot begin to work together to correct these choices and create more hope for future generations. If we start getting to know our neighbors, community, and society better through small conversations and discussions, we can progressively move towards a healthier more hopeful world.

I just moved in to my first apartment. Me and my new roommates are trying to get to know each other, so we're talking about ourselves and asking each other questions. One of them notices I have what seems to be hiccups, and she asks me about it. I mention that I suffer from Tourette's, a fairly rare neurological condition that causes me to make uncontrollable noises and motions sometimes. My roommate mentions that she has a cousin with Tourette's, and asks a couple of questions about it. We then move on with the conversation, my issue isn't a problem for her. This is an amazing change from when my grandfather was growing up. He also suffered from Tourette's, and it made him randomly curse sometimes. People at the time weren't nearly as understanding, they didn't try to help, and they just thought he was being rebellious. People didn't understand and they didn't try to, and people like him suffered as a result. One thing that gives me hope for the future is this simple change, the fact that people are increasingly acting with empathy and compassion. The fact that I, unlike my grandfather, enjoy the care and understanding of my piers is a monumental change for the better, and it's a very common one. There's a lot of harm that occurred because of previous generations fearing people for being different, and ostracizing them as a result of this fear. People latched on to any sense of otherness that set a person or group apart, and persecuted them for it. While we still have a lot of issues, and people are still persecuted unnecessarily, younger generations seem to have an increased sense of empathy and compassion. Each generation seems to care a little less about what someone looks like and where they come from, and a little more about who the person is and what they're struggling with. As this change continues, people are more and more comfortable being who they are, and being open about issues they previously would have never been able to talk about before. This change gives me a lot of hope that future generations will be even more understanding. We'll always have people that hate and fear others, but those people are going away, and I hope for a day where treating people badly for things they can't control is a thing of the past. Seeing people care and work to do better gives me hope that we really can overcome our hate-filled past and make a brighter, more inclusive future.