You know what’s frustrating about writing? I have so many story ideas, but not enough time to write them in the detail I want. And I read all these writing prompts and listen to new music and listen to other people's conversation and think, wow, that would be a perfect story. Or wow, look at that coffee shop, my characters should meet there. But then you don’t have the time to stop and actually make it happen, to write enough that you remember exactly how it looked and felt.
Our short term memories can leave us so quickly. It’s impossible to capture all the joy and beauty of a moment or thought with words or pictures or even videos don't really do it justice.
Stories are so huge - our stories here have an earthly limit, but nevertheless they are unimaginably huge. Spanning across years and people and spiderweb thoughts that no one but us will ever know the extent of. I don’t want my books to be like that- limited- there is always more to tell. I don’t want my stories to end, but I know they must.. They must end because we do. Unlike the characters in stories, we cannot be immortal here on Earth.
Life is too huge to be confined to a single story, or a single thought, word, imagination. One person's life touches others and bleeds across the people they affect. It could be a simple compliment, a hug, or a lifelong friend that has always been there. Through that they become part of your story, no matter how large or small a part. They may be only one sentence, but that can be the most impactful sentence of the whole novel. Or maybe they were on almost every page, the rock when the main character (who may be you) is unsteady. You are both those parts in many of people stories. We hope to be the good. We hope that that one sentence was a compliment, not a curse. We hope that we are the hero in others stories. But the truth of the matter is we are both heroes and villains, innocent and twisted, we breath life and quench it. Sometimes we are the antagonist. That's life. We fail and fall and get hurt and hurt others.
We use books as escapes because we rather read about a girl, or guy, who has fallen but gets back up heroically. They conquer their fears and face the villains. Or the villain learns and becomes a hero. We can see the story from the outside and think of how amazing that character is. It’s hard for us to see how we do the same. Maybe we haven't battles dragons, saved the world from monsters, or sacrificed everything for what we believe in. We (I) live in America, where we are untouchable, we have perfect lives. *cough* not *cough*. Just this morning we heard that at least 60 people were killed in Las Vegas and over five hundred more injured. This was one man's decision. This is how he spent his last moments. Killing. Then he left this earth.
Decisions create the moments that are our time on earth. Time, without decisions, we would stand still and watch the world continue around us and spin under our feet. We can make good decisions or we can make bad ones. Sometimes the difference is hard to tell. Absolutes are rare. We could all agree that killing is bad, but what if it's either kill or be killed? What if it is killing one man to save the world? What if that one man has killed before, for the wrong reasons? Does that make it okay to kill him for our protection? Some states seem to think so, by using the death penalty they act as executioner, is that okay? Maybe, maybe not. It’s really hard to see clearly in the midst of it all, it’s really hard to have foresight on how our decisions will impact us and the people we touch. Sometimes we ignore how it will effect us and others because we are so miserable, or we just don’t care, or we don’t look. We don’t even try to see the impact because we’d rather be ignorant than ashamed. We’d rather sit back and let others decide. We think we are not making a decision, but what we are really doing is deciding not to act. Not to change. Not to help. Not to care. Not to be a hero. And if you don’t choose to be a hero sometimes that makes you a villain.
To all the dreamers of this generation. To all the kids who hold onto the hope that this world is still good. To all the teens that write stories to be the good change. To the fans of books who just want to be the hero of their story.
Don’t sit still. Don’t wait for someday. We have the power, opportunity, and dreams to make this world a better place. Don't back down because you are scared. Don’t give up because of one failure, or two, or ten thousand. We are the future, today. We are not the future someday. Now. Don’t wait for the world to break you. Don’t wait till you have it all figured out because when that day comes you're gonna be dead and six feet under. Sometimes someday becomes never. Sometimes you lose these dreams when you wait ten years before acting. If you wait until you're out of school to try to change the school system you would have wasted four, eight years. Start now. To quote one of my favorite books. “If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system.That's much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.” ― Marie Lu, Legend
Much love,
Thane.