Admittedly, I am not an excellent reader. I did, however, have an excellent AP Literature teacher who introduced me to some incredible books. One that remains to stand out to me is The Stranger by Albert Camus. In short, I love this book because I can always go back to it and peel away something new and absurd! Of course, the genre is absurdism, but it never fails to blow my mind at least a little. Ultimately, Camus tells the story of Meursault, an emotionally disconnected young man who has to face his mother’s death, commit a murder, and end up in prison in order to find a sense of purpose in life. Just typing out that little synopsis made me excited to pick up the book again! Having a work that makes me question my own existence is something extremely rare, yet beautiful to me. The first time I finished the book was at two in the morning and it immediately threw me into a frenzy of extraordinary thoughts. Personally, I felt that I related to Meursault in little, significant ways. In a world of technological routine, it is so easy to be devoid of a feeling that is extraordinary or worthy of praise. However, Camus teaches the audience how life really is absurd and we make our own meaning. All the while, Camus manages to touch on our relations to the people in our lives and how company in any form is its own sense of peace. Now that is truly complex, striking, ingenious, and alluring all within one-hundred and fifty nine pages!

Just like a terrifying amount of youth in this world, I am a teen who suffers with anxiety and depression. The struggle of mental illness is lonely and haunting despite the large population it attacks. It is safe to say that we, as a world, so obviously lack the proper necessities and established solutions in order to better this issue. Personally, I felt that the darkness only felt increasingly more dangerous until I sought after and received professional help. I have the privilege of seeing a therapist; however, not only is this a solution that is rare for many youth, but it is also difficult to obtain in the first place. For me, the main difficulty follows along the lines of financial need. So, what can we do to better our international mental health crisis? I believe that a rational solution to help more people who struggle with mental illness is to target our K-12 public education system with government funding. This presents young people with the chance to develop their own understanding on mental health and an attainable place to speak with a professional. It is so necessary that we introduce not only a mental health professional into our schools, but also a more routine teaching of what it means to take care of our minds. To expand, my main idea here is that we bring this into our curriculum within schools. We cannot begin to break apart mental health struggles without education and, overall, breaking the stigma around mental illness. To conclude and to address a general concern around funding, I believe that there is a necessity to use tax money by working to crackdown on tax avoidance.

In the life that is American grind culture, I genuinely rarely find times of momentary bliss. However, never am I more at peace than when I am talking with my sister. My sister and I have busy schedules but when we find the time to simply sit and discuss the current status of our lives together, I feel seen and cared for in a very pure way. As both of us struggle with anxiety and depression, I never feel tension flow off of my shoulders so quickly than when I am with her. I feel genuinely mournful for those who do not have this human in their lives. This human who does not judge nor invalidate. Sitting in our room before bed, ignoring life’s responsibilities, and pouring into each other is something I will covet forever. I am privileged to have a human who makes me feel less alone in a world that feels full of everlasting anxieties. I hope to never take for granted times like these because my simple pleasure holds a lot more weight than what can be defined as “simple.”

Altruism in its purest form is reallocating what you are given. In an increasingly divided world, it is easy to feed onto the idea of “every man for themselves.” However, we will never be unified if we don’t care for the people near and far from us. I believe that our first step as a world towards genuine peace and freedom is through a shared sense of generosity. We must be able to provide for more than ourselves, and if we have the ability to give then we should. At the very least, this allows us to keep another human afloat. Growing up in a space where I was worried where clothes and meals would come from, I was met with compassionate people who lended my family all that they had (and more). I only aim to continue this necessary cycle of care through not only giving physical things such as money, clothes, etc., but through my time and care. Volunteering my time to the community who crafted me into who I am is how I give back. Time is valuable and mine is best spent when I find the joy of being a part of or running events such as food and blood drives. Being able to find myself in spaces of generosity is rewarding in so many ways. Compassion is so much of what it means to be human because without it, unity is simply a blissfully ignorant theory. As a world and as humans, we will never all be completely at peace until everyone is.

People cannot be expected to fully grasp the meaning of life on their own. So when I am expected to decide my own future, I often sit in confusion and awe. The agony of not feeling like life is worth living has been an experience I have been forced to have more times than I can count. With too many years too late, I watched Dead Poets Society (1989) and was not only hit with this extreme emotional torment that simply took me too long to recover from, but I was genuinely blessed with a shifted mindset. The well known professor John Keating, played by late but loved actor Robin Williams, was able to formulate the sensation and power of art into words. Keating gathered his classroom and encouraged them as he powerfully stated the following: “We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” I capture his final sentence of the words beauty, romance, love, and poetry and I summarize it into one simple word: art. Rarely does one, in this modern day of life, live their days without the taste of art in at least a few forms and those who do are victims of a most likely joyless life. However, who am I to generalize the earth’s entire population? So, I reveal myself to explain that Keating’s summarization of truly living is what allowed me to see who I’m meant to be and how I’m meant to live. Art and humanities of some form has now become a guilt-free possibility for the future; however, never before have I seen this possibility for myself. I want passion, but I was unsure of what that truly meant. I always loved art, but never truly recognized its power despite feeling the sensation of it. Now, I make strides towards my future with that importance in mind. I never allow the power of art to die within my mind. Now, I am inspired to live a passionate life filled with poetry, beauty, romance, and love. I simply have never enjoyed writing more nor have I understood myself more than I do now. I believe that the four key parts of life that John Keating mentioned is the pure fact that these are the things that allow humans to see within ourselves and to see within each other. So, I aim to extend these passionate aspects of life into a fulfilled career one day. This quote granted my ability to see my own capabilities of entering a humanities major whether it be history or something near it. I continuously am working on discovering my true path through my writing, through my art, and through the love I hold for others.