Bernice Jean Louis
Mrs. Gorman
English 4 H
7 October 2014 As I look around the world today, I view a world that was once filled with love has quickly turned to hate. I read about the history of our vast world and sad to say none of it is the same. I remember growing up and reading my story books about great leaders of the world who were fearless and without shame, willing to fight for their right to be heard, to be known, and to matter. Now all I see is are people hiding behind shadows, scared to show their true selves. What could they be hiding from? The truth is they are hiding from themselves. The world may have changed, but do our views do too? I missed the times where I was proud to say that I was from this part of this world or proud to say that I was part of this race, but now I hold myself back for the fear of being judged and looked down upon. I fear that people will now look only at the color of my skin and not at the context of my character. They will be quick to judge the girl who is thickset and wears her hair short and has glasses but not take the time to know that she has a good heart and simply wants peace. They will take a second look at the man with the hoodie who enters the store and walks around just trying to mind his business, but will leave the true suspect alone all because of the fear of not knowing what the other men intentions are. We tend to blame the boy who was murdered and blame the cause of his death on his faults for the fear not knowing whether he was armed or not. We fear not being accepted, accepted by our peers, our parents, society. We feel the need to be accepted to fit in; to feel a sense of worth. We stay up to date with the latest fashion just so we look a certain way. We fear the judgment of our bodies; we fear that by not being a certain body type or having the right body parts we are less perfect than the girl we see on the cover of a photo shopped magazine. We confused our minds with the definition of perfect when it has been in front of us the whole time but we are too fearful to recognize it. We fear the judgments of others for not being in part of a certain crowd, the fear of trying things that we know are harmful just to look cool despite the effect it plays on us later in life. We fear, loneliness not one person wants to ever feel lonely, but sometimes we forget to think that being lonely is sometimes good. In that time we get to know who we truly are and learn to appreciate the great gift we are to the earth. We fear those who are unexplainable those