“I don’t care.” “Oh, there’s nothing I can do about that.” “I’m too busy to get myself involved out there.” “What will I get from this?” “I simply just do not care.” These are familiar lines we undeniably spit out on a daily basis, silently or out loud and consciously or subconsciously.
Too young to be stoic, too important to be indifferent – that’s what we are.
We, students, go through university life with our constant vulnerability of mental and emotional exhaustion.
We live for the numbers marked on our test papers. We live for the seemingly endless projects and requirements, that golden diploma at the far end of the road, the struggles that we face with toxic and “okay” people and for the different kinds of “broke” that we encounter, literally and figuratively. We live for competition.
The demands of society have forced us to shrink underneath the sea of responsibilities that the higher-ups expect us to fulfill. We give them credit for that and so we work so hard to reach perfection. In turn, we give ourselves credit for not denying ourselves the opportunity to authentically grow and learn.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the picture except that we forget to swim. We let ourselves shrink deep down into a scoff-worthy yet attractive place called stoicism. Dictionary-wise, it is the quality or behavior of an individual who accepts what happens without complaining or showing emotion. Life-wise, it is just a lame alternative for passiveness.
We are so preoccupied by the frequent buzz of the roles we play everyday that we forget to care. There are lots of issues out there that we can do something about. There are systems existing that need to be enhanced, nourished or destroyed. If only we know and if only we care, our age would be of more importance than it already is.
In a deeper but simpler note, we become indifferent. We fail to pause. A pause is somehow the mind’s free ticket towards restoration. We get so used to beauty that we mistake it for dullness. Michael D. Moga phrased it accurately when he said, “The truth of the painting which was so rich and meaningful at the beginning has disappeared for the most part. I no longer experience it.”
We also think of death as that which comes after everything. We know death but seldom are we aware of it. Whenever we grieve at funerals and see a coffin covered by roses, we promise ourselves to “live life to the fullest” but inevitably, we forget. We go on and live as if we are infinite and as if death is predictable.
This fragment of life right here – it passes by. Do not forget this. We are young and important. Pause. Stir emotions and reactions. Don’t just shrug it off. Care!
