A short story about the power of hope.
I would compare most of my life to being in the middle of the ocean during a storm. It’s dark and you’re alone. The water is freezing. You have no idea what other terrifying creatures are in the water close to you. You’re struggling to breathe and being tossed and beat by waves you can’t see coming. It’s petrifying. All odds say that you’re most likely going to die, that’s the logical way to view that situation.
Despite this situation I always had hope I was going to be okay. This was delusional. Peak delusion because how can you look around when you’re in that situation and think I am going to be okay. I did it anyways. Hope is like a beaming thin, hair strand of light that ties you to back to the safety of land. It’s crazy to think it could help you when you’re drowning in a dark ocean but it is literally all you have. It’s hope or death.
So you keep holding on until the storm is over, then you start slowly pulling yourself closer and closer to shore. It takes you years. It is agonizing and painstakingly difficult, but you hold onto that feeling that keeps you going. One day you finally make it to the island and despite this horrific trauma all people can say is “what took you so long?”
“Why are you wet?”
“Why are you always so afraid and shivering, lighten up.”
People who don’t understand what it’s like in that ocean will never understand why you are the way that you are. The universe doesn’t require them to understand. So even after finally making it to land, you struggle to relate and talk to people and you find yourself alone again. Surrounded by people but achingly lonely. Sometimes wish you were back in the ocean because you would rather deal with a quick death than the emotional emptiness. Hope tells you to keep going, there’s that strand of light tied to your finger that never lets go even when you’re exhausted and feel like a shell of a person.
Years go by and you find people with a similar strand of light tied to their fingers and realize that maybe you’re not so alone after all. You spend the rest of your life saving people from those storms and even fall in love with another person who saved themselves. You might not be the most popular person or have the most friends, but you have the strongest community of people who finally understand you and that’s enough.
Dry and safe you build a life with your person and lean on each other when times are bad. You have a small family, a humble job and enough love to change the world. Even if it’s just your own.
