Earlier this week, one day after class, I went to the restroom. I encountered an appalling sight as I found that all the stalls had not been flushed, and contained, judging on the color, some amount of bodily fluids. A bit disheartened by what seemed to be a display of the current downward trend in behavior among college students, I chose the stall I had last inspected, and after being relieved, I proceeded to flush. To my surprise, nothing was flushed. It then all started to make sense.
In high school, I was disgusted with the way society worked. Why did grades dictate my future? Why was it important to look good? Why do I have to be a good speaker? It simply didn't make sense to me. Inwardly, I was enraged that everyone put up with it, and no one questioned it. Determined to not "play this game", I set off to do my own thing. Just as it was this way earlier this week, so it was with me back then. The reasoning was: What I am seeing is wrong; it shouldn't be this way, so I will do something about it. Adults either lacked the energy, the willpower, or the courage to stand up.
But, now I see that things are much different from what I perceived in my youth. It can be said that I simply did not see the whole picture back then. In the last few years, I have come to realize that things are the way they are for a reason. When something doesn't make sense initially, it is usually because I am missing something, a vital piece to the puzzle.
Perhaps the most significant realizations have been my gradual shift from my thinking as a youth to the thinking of those adults whom I disagreed with. Though my thinking as a youth would be suitable in an ideal world, the wisdom of the adults around me contained the advice to survive and succeed in the real world, where most people are superficial and self-serving, and not magnanimous nor idealistic, which are requirements in an ideal world. Thus, I have advanced one more rung up the ladder of adulthood.
Written on April 14, 2012