Caution
to all blog readers: this week’s entry takes a turn towards the deep. I tried
to come up with yet another witty anecdote about myself to share, but I cannot
ignore the events that have occurred this past week. As I left eighth period
commons on Friday, I received a text from my friend in Connecticut. It read just this: “There was a shooting at an
elementary school 25 minutes away.” I paused as I passed the central office.
What did she mean? I drove home quickly to see my mom pouring over AOL news,
and together we attempted to make sense of the terrible event. But, as it
always does, life had to keep moving. I went to swim practice and came home to
eat before I had to babysit that night. I sat down with my soup when I received
an email from the University of Michigan, congratulating me on my acceptance! I
could not contain my happiness, and I must admit I cried tears of joy right
then and there. For a brief moment I erased all the grief from the day, and I only
focused on the fact that my dream school actually wanted me amongst their
student population. After many hugs and congratulations, I left to babysit. In
the car, it hit me: how could I feel such joy when such a horrible thing had
happened? I felt almost guilty for rejoicing in my acceptance when twenty
children will never have the ability to experience the same. I came to the
conclusion, however, that I should not take the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut
in this way. As my mom tells me and the disaster confirms, life is not a guarantee.
Unlike the urn in John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” we move from day to day,
scene to scene, trying to find what Jay Gatsby proves as the goal of life:
happiness. If we overwhelm ourselves with tragedy and lose sight of life’s pleasures,
then our lives will just become one big depress-fest. And nobody wants that. We
should mourn and remember the dead, but our remembrance should go even further.
We should celebrate moments like college acceptances, for they prove our vivacity
and prosperity in a world with no guarantees.
I agree with your doubly inspiring and depressing assertion that people must act somewhat selfishly in order to enjoy their successes. Although the Connecticut shooting affected many people deeply throughout the United States, it should not bring our lives to a standstill (I know I sound horribly self-absorbed in saying this). But I also find that occurrences like these can make us more appreciative of our health, our safety and our loved ones. It can shock us out of the monotony of our daily lives, allow us to experience renewed feelings of compassion and joy and serve as a reminder of the privileges we so often take for granted. Merry Christmas.
ReplyDeleteLike you, Alyssa, I felt surprised at the obvious avoidance of the Newtown shooting in this week's round of blogs, but I think that the assertion in your touching entry helps to explain our "selfish" behavior. Personally I cannot banish the incident from my thoughts and I doubt that those in Newtown can think of anything else. But we still have to take joy in things like college and Christmas, else we will begin to dwell on the crushing imperfections of our world. I agree with you completely that we can only combat death by celebrating life.
ReplyDeleteI love your optimistic outlook. Something that I think is very interesting is that in a few weeks from now most of the US population will forget about the shooting while the families of the affected will wake up every single day reminded of their loss. I cannot help but believe that in life's precious moments, such as college acceptance, one must truly take in the joys of life because like you said, they can disappear so quickly.
ReplyDelete