All you need is love!
Fifty people were killed and another 53 wounded early Sunday (5/12/16) when a gunman opened fire in a crowded LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The shooter has been identified by law enforcement as Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old American citizen living in Florida who worked as a security guard. Mateen reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS before the massacre and may also have been motivated by homophobia. The incident is the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. So as I quote Black Eyed Peas, “Where is the love?”
Like a lot of twenty-somethings, I have a five-year plan. And like a lot of those twenty somethings, their five-year plan isn't going exactly like they thought it might. Wrenches are thrown and life can change in a blink of an eye. For anyone. Absolutely anyone. It doesn’t matter what race you are, gender, what you identify as, your background…nothing. Everyones life can change in the matter of a second. I will not put my thoughts of gun safety or LGBTQ in this blog, because frankly I am not arguing with someone if they don’t agree with me. That’s ok. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. But what I really want this blog to be about it LOVE. You know that whole, “treat others like you want to be treated” thing? Yeah, let’s bring that back into the world. I know I can’t change the world by myself, but I damn sure know how to change how someone views the world. Which is why I think the world needs more love letters. Let me explain…
Handwritten letters are not ideal for someone whose immune system has been completely destroyed by chemotherapy, or someone who died at a club because some asshole went haywire. But handwritten letters mean you care. You are thinking about the person, you put thought into it, and you care. Yes, a text and phone call has the same meaning to it…but handwritten letters have so much more behind it.
As a college kid, I’ve been in some dark places. Books piled up in a stack beside you. Nodding off to the glow of the computer screen. Neon strips of highlighter scraped across your forehead— not left from a raging highlighter party the night before but rather the all-nighter spent spooning medical term books. Some of you who are reading this are halfway through college, knees sunk deep in the muds of history power points. Some of you are stammering in the mirror before you give that final speech in class tomorrow. Some of you are stocking up on caffeine fixes and 5-Hour Energy drinks before the storm hits. A storm of finals worth 60% of your grade. 12-pagers that will have you crawling into the light of the morning, turning your study guide into a white flag to wave and surrender. You think that your life is awful right now, but I promise…You’ll make it. I know it. It’s hard to believe that right now as you struggle to swallow every prefix in the dictionary or every literary term you’ll need to dissect that Emily D. poem tomorrow. But the closeness of friends in one place, seeing the sun coming up before you close a book, the 24/7 mandatory sweatpants apparel for at least the next two weeks… you’ll miss it when it is gone.
I can promise there are lights & lanterns & the promise of summer nights at the end of your tunnel. Perhaps it won’t be the grace of a love letter that gets you through but the grace you’ll gain from the sound of the last book shutting. The sound of the last pages shuffling out from the printer and into your professor’s mailbox.
Anyway, the point I am trying to make here is life is rough. There is no need to make it rougher on others. Be kind to one another. Not because I said so, but because you want to be treated kindly as well. If we don’t do something to bring back love into the world, then there will be nothing left to believe in. Remember to breathe. To eat. To sleep, if you can. Curl up on the couch in the campus center if that’s what it takes. Listen to the Taylor Swift (she never gets old) while you slug a sugar-filled latte you so deserve. And, on the nights where 1am comes quicker than shoppers to Best Buy on Black Friday, be the one to text your friends, "Diner. 2am. I'll drive."
So pick your chin up from the computer. Stand up and stretch. Take a break to call your friend you haven’t talked to in years. If there is someone beside you, smile… nudge them… propose a coffee break… treat them, treat yourself, treat others.
Let Beethoven trickle through the iHome. Take a Target break. Drive home the long way with the windows down and sad songs blaring through the speakers. Stop the car. Park it. Just sit quiet for a minute or two– no texts to keep you, no Instagram to push you out of the moment at hand. Forget for a moment that your vocabulary is plumped with Finals & Responsibility & Deadlines & Due Dates. Just laugh & sing & dare to miss the moments that will be gone tomorrow. The moments you’re going to miss tomorrow and might even find yourself thinking, “I wish I didn’t take that for granted.”
Life is rough. Life comes with unexpected twists and turns of events. Life is a bitch…there is no reason you need to be one too. So fill the world with love letters. Write your parents, your friends, on fancy paper, on a napkin, snail mail, carrier pigeon. If you want to see a change in the amount of love the world receives, then change the amount of love you're willing to give. Your life can change in an instant no matter who you are, so appreciate what you have today.
Like a lot of twenty-somethings, I have a five-year plan. And like a lot of those twenty somethings, their five-year plan isn't going exactly like they thought it might. Wrenches are thrown and life can change in a blink of an eye. For anyone. Absolutely anyone. It doesn’t matter what race you are, gender, what you identify as, your background…nothing. Everyones life can change in the matter of a second. I will not put my thoughts of gun safety or LGBTQ in this blog, because frankly I am not arguing with someone if they don’t agree with me. That’s ok. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. But what I really want this blog to be about it LOVE. You know that whole, “treat others like you want to be treated” thing? Yeah, let’s bring that back into the world. I know I can’t change the world by myself, but I damn sure know how to change how someone views the world. Which is why I think the world needs more love letters. Let me explain…
Handwritten letters are not ideal for someone whose immune system has been completely destroyed by chemotherapy, or someone who died at a club because some asshole went haywire. But handwritten letters mean you care. You are thinking about the person, you put thought into it, and you care. Yes, a text and phone call has the same meaning to it…but handwritten letters have so much more behind it.
As a college kid, I’ve been in some dark places. Books piled up in a stack beside you. Nodding off to the glow of the computer screen. Neon strips of highlighter scraped across your forehead— not left from a raging highlighter party the night before but rather the all-nighter spent spooning medical term books. Some of you who are reading this are halfway through college, knees sunk deep in the muds of history power points. Some of you are stammering in the mirror before you give that final speech in class tomorrow. Some of you are stocking up on caffeine fixes and 5-Hour Energy drinks before the storm hits. A storm of finals worth 60% of your grade. 12-pagers that will have you crawling into the light of the morning, turning your study guide into a white flag to wave and surrender. You think that your life is awful right now, but I promise…You’ll make it. I know it. It’s hard to believe that right now as you struggle to swallow every prefix in the dictionary or every literary term you’ll need to dissect that Emily D. poem tomorrow. But the closeness of friends in one place, seeing the sun coming up before you close a book, the 24/7 mandatory sweatpants apparel for at least the next two weeks… you’ll miss it when it is gone.
I can promise there are lights & lanterns & the promise of summer nights at the end of your tunnel. Perhaps it won’t be the grace of a love letter that gets you through but the grace you’ll gain from the sound of the last book shutting. The sound of the last pages shuffling out from the printer and into your professor’s mailbox.
Anyway, the point I am trying to make here is life is rough. There is no need to make it rougher on others. Be kind to one another. Not because I said so, but because you want to be treated kindly as well. If we don’t do something to bring back love into the world, then there will be nothing left to believe in. Remember to breathe. To eat. To sleep, if you can. Curl up on the couch in the campus center if that’s what it takes. Listen to the Taylor Swift (she never gets old) while you slug a sugar-filled latte you so deserve. And, on the nights where 1am comes quicker than shoppers to Best Buy on Black Friday, be the one to text your friends, "Diner. 2am. I'll drive."
So pick your chin up from the computer. Stand up and stretch. Take a break to call your friend you haven’t talked to in years. If there is someone beside you, smile… nudge them… propose a coffee break… treat them, treat yourself, treat others.
Let Beethoven trickle through the iHome. Take a Target break. Drive home the long way with the windows down and sad songs blaring through the speakers. Stop the car. Park it. Just sit quiet for a minute or two– no texts to keep you, no Instagram to push you out of the moment at hand. Forget for a moment that your vocabulary is plumped with Finals & Responsibility & Deadlines & Due Dates. Just laugh & sing & dare to miss the moments that will be gone tomorrow. The moments you’re going to miss tomorrow and might even find yourself thinking, “I wish I didn’t take that for granted.”
Life is rough. Life comes with unexpected twists and turns of events. Life is a bitch…there is no reason you need to be one too. So fill the world with love letters. Write your parents, your friends, on fancy paper, on a napkin, snail mail, carrier pigeon. If you want to see a change in the amount of love the world receives, then change the amount of love you're willing to give. Your life can change in an instant no matter who you are, so appreciate what you have today.
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