There are many lies that will throw us constantly into this world without hesitation or restraint. Lies are everywhere, sprinkled in our sundaes of living, whether or not we notice it
without giving the cherry on top. However, one thing that will always be true is something that seems simple, yet disheartening at the same time.
Life or anybody else hasn’t prepared us for anything… like school.
Correctly or fully.
The world has taught us many things about school and what to watch out for, but also what to be wary of. Throughout our entire lives, our primary focuses in school have always been the big three: grades, socializing, and hobbies. To maintain the best grades, to get the education and life we rightfully want and deserve, to socialize and meet new people to connect with, and to discover oneself with many hobbies and extracurriculars around. With these three in our grasp as we hold it with success and pride, school will be nothing but a walk in the park.
It’s a walk, yes, but which park are we specifying?
At first, we all imagined it to be a park that is filled with the most mesmerizing flowers and trees as the wind blows and sings its way around us. The sun shines brightly, emphasizing the warmth and protection it has for us. The air is filled with nothing but the freshness and, possibly, the happiness of the youth that’s here with us.
However, as we stroll down this park, something else has caught our eye at an age where we shouldn’t even see it at all. Not here, not now, not yet.
The air within the park grows a bit more hastily. Its scent becomes more acidic as it burns our insides and fills our heads with horrifying scenarios. The sounds ringing in our ears play screams and cries that will haunt us endlessly till our death day. Wonderful scenery of nature begins to wither and decay in front of us as reality shows the image that should’ve been shown on the first day. But at the same time, an image that shouldn’t even be presented at all.
Why would it be presented now?
Even worse… why did it make the wind sing worries within us, our parents, our loved ones, and our communities?
This aroma around the park that we have been walking, not even for three years, is dangerous.
The danger that is placed on us, the danger that we weren’t notified of, and the danger that we have never signed up for as the politicians have signed it for us.
When the first “code red” blares at our young ears at just the age of five, nothing but confusion arises within. Thinking, “what’s a code red?”
As we see our teachers scurry as if their life depends on it, shutting the door, blocking the windows, and turning off the lights, we all rush to a very specific corner of the classroom.
We all huddle up, feeling giddy about what this new experience might be. Only to be shushed instantly by someone who is now deemed as our bodyguard.
They never signed up to be one though… why should they even act like one? Why should they have this image in their head that they would have to risk their lives in a school, of all places?
Because society and regulations had set them up unfairly to be the shield of protection from the danger that the higher-ups should’ve protected us from. However, higher-ups refuse or even dare move a finger to be our shield to end it all. Instead, our shield is the people that shape our brains and who we are today. At a young age, we never noticed it until it all clicked in our heads.
At a young age, we never noticed why we have to be silent as if we were evaporating from the room, disappearing from it all. Never noticed the darkness circling around the room like a silent tornado. Never noticed the locked and closed-off doors, avoiding sunlight from even touching the classroom.
We never noticed it…
Until the tv speaks, no, screeches out to all of us on what really is going on. Of what truly is “code red”. However, they show us in a way that we wish could be erased from our brains.
They show us in a way with names and faces that we’ve never seen nor recognized until now. Now it's too late for them to even make a name for themselves because someone stole their name and soul from them with no sorrow.
Images and videos played filled with crying parents and angry members of society about the event that had taken place. Words played and circle our brains of what truly had happened.
“December 14, 2012…” is just an “average” Friday that has drastically changed this whole young generation’s minds forever.
At first, most of us thought it would simply be the end of stories like these to even pop up. It’s too horrific to even happen, so why would anyone else want to repeat history?
However… we were incredibly wrong.
Stories upon stories upon stories of horrifying pops and bangs echo through the rooms of bodies being dropped in an instant. Of lives being stolen by selfish and malicious people with a weapon that caused it all…
Firearms.
Bear arms.
Guns.
Whatever you want to call them, they are a student’s worst nightmare.
Not even… they are anyone’s worst nightmare if it gets into the very wrong and harmful hands.
What’s even worse, the student can never escape from it as supposedly, it can happen anywhere! Is society really telling us to simply accept it and let it be? If it happens, it happens?
We’ve been living in constant fear after hearing hundreds of news stories filled with nothing but loss. Whenever we’re in a public place, we can’t help but start forming an escape plan for anywhere that we go. Go to the nearest exit and run as fast as you possibly can, but quietly. Can’t even risk being another statistic, so all we have to do is sprint like there’s no such thing as tomorrow. If we don’t sprint away, there will be no tomorrow.
The worries sing louder and louder as we grow older and older. It’s horrifying to even imagine the possibilities of what would happen if we don’t follow the rules of protection. What’s even worse, these events can be unexpected.
How can higher-ups expect us to live safely when we constantly fear what might happen? If we witness the horror or if we become a part of the horror as our spirits fly out and stare below the sorrow that has been caused after that agonizing pain. If we could lose someone very dear to us, thanks to the inanimate objects that apparently have more importance than the people that could’ve made an impact on the future. The people that could simply just live their lives in peace and harmony… but now… would that even be possible in today’s modern age?
It truly does hurt to see how life turned out to be this way. I sometimes wish that I could still have the young mentality of a five-year-old, not worry about how to escape school in a snap or to not worry about how to fight back against the perpetrator. However, the more I realize, even five-year-olds these days have thoughts like these. The world has drilled into our heads how in constant danger we all are.
It’s sickening.
It’s horrible.
It’s disheartening.
It’s a veritable nightmare.
We are all tired of the worries that screech for the entire world to hear. Tired of the people that don’t have a sign of a heart… but decide to make everyone’s lives a living hell. Most importantly, tired of all the people that won’t even dare to even make a true and impactful difference in our lives. They have the ability and the power to actually do something, to let us all listen to the peace of the world one more time!
We just want to hear it one more time…
If they don’t want to change the songs that the world has been teaching us as the years get worse and worse, then we’ll take stuff into our own hands.
To protest, to sign, to govern, to rule over, to truly be the people that will work as hard as they can to let these sickening thoughts and worries vanish. To not let history repeat itself as it pleases! It’ll take years, decades, centuries even… but time won’t be our roadblock to what we truly desire. Time will be a helping hand, going day by day as we let a changing spring through.
Time, dedication, and effort will finally have five-year-olds’ walk in the park filled with life as everyone else tries to reenter it once more.
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