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Friday, May 27, 2011

Hope

Today I found out that for my farewell I am going to be speaking on Hope. This came as a relief for me because I hate having to write things on narrow, obvious topics such as my most recent American Heritage paper which had to be done about the Law of Demand. Hope gives me a lot of room to think and come up with something at least semi-original. The more that I think about it, this ties in a lot with my last post.

There are many meanings for hope to me. Actually, one meaning but so many feelings of it. I am sure that for Michael Jordan to accomplish what he did in the NBA,  he had a lot of hope along the way. It was the hope that he could one day play in the NBA and beyond that, the hope that he could be one of the greatest players of all time. Similarly but so different, there is the hope that a certain girl or boy will one day call you and proclaim their love to you. But as I am sure you have all learned, that doesnt always happen and many times it leaves you heartbroken.

It is not so much the feeling of hope while you are hoping that is different in different situations, but rather the feelings after your hope either pays off or amounts to nothing that sets each experience different from the others. So to revise what I wrote above, there is only one hope but many different outcomes which cause many different feelings.

The significance of hope has nothing to do with the feelings that follow it though, but what more tangible things can follow it. What makes the hope Michael Jordan had about his basketball career great is not the joy it brought him, but the great superstar that resulted from the work caused by the hope. Even in situations where hope can hurt - such as if you hope for someone you have a crush on to proclaim their love for you but all they ever do is ignore your existence - you do not lose anything from hoping. If you never hoped for that thing again, you might never experience love.

All of the above is pretty obvious. But if what are important are the tangible changes that come from hope and not the feelings, then even when your hope amounts to nothing to heartbreak, you still can come out a winner. Chances are you wont feel like you won anything, but in the long run you may have picked up small things that will benefit you.

For example, I know many people who have lost control of their lives and gotten into drugs and other things. Just when it seemed like all was lost, they found what they hoped would become their significant other. The problem: the other person probably would not have accepted them or given them a chance in their current situation. So the lovestruck person changed their entire life for the one person that meant more to them than anything they were doing at the time meant to them. Regardless of the life changes, things never worked out and the heartbroken person was left with nothing at all. They most likely felt crushed and confused. However, for one reason or another, they did not go back to drugs or the life they led before. They may have felt horrible at the time, but their life was changed for the better one way or another.

The problem with hope is that the opposite is equally as possible. Big disappointments and letdowns can lead to negative life changes. Sadly, things as small as heartbreak can seem big enough to people that they can lead to drug abuse and worse. So what determines whether a person allows broken hope to change them for the better or worse? Separating your emotions from your thoughts, and allowing yourself to make rational judgements even during emotional stress.

Hope that turns into success has lead to just about every great thing in the world. Hope that fails (if dealt with correctly) can make you a stronger person, and still allow you to come out better than before that idea of hope existed.

So as cheesy as it sounds, hope away. And when it leaves you crushed and broken, remember that there is more life ahead of you and opportunities will come. So while it may feel like the end of the world, it's not.

                                                                       and remember...




 
- a still cloudy minded, oxycodone affected me.

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