How do you become YOURSELF? We all know the sayings that light up on postcards, T-shirts and Instagram. Be yourself! Or, to paraphrase Coco Chanel: “La beauté commence au moment où vous décidez d’être vous-même!” – just – how do you do that? This text by a 16-year-old philosopher – because that’s what she is – clearly shows that above all we have to learn to relate to ourselves. An art that poses many challenges and questions. But, and this is shown by the experience published here: There is HOPE!
For a long time I have lost hope in humanity. You could say I was wandering for many months, even years, and I was a person who copied others and mutated myself in the process. I wanted to have fun, joy and a life free of hate, but since I never got there, despite all the efforts, I decided not to live anymore. I was no longer MYSELF – but who can do that?
You will never find yourself if you assume that it doesn’t exist or that you have to look out for it first. We find who we are in us. Our Self. Much of what we do or don’t do in life is a reflection of us. We don’t realize it, but we do things that describe who we are. No matter how or where, no matter how we talk to people or behave when we are alone: everything says something about us.
What we need to learn, and what is a kind of life test, is to analyze our decisions and our actions. That which appears to the outside world to be ordinary or of no further meaning. As pupils we often said: What is the point of analyzing texts or poems in class? What does it bring us in life? It may be that many, nowadays, stop at school or that teachers, when they explain it to us, only look at the analysis of this specific text. But in reality the idea from the beginning was to teach students to interpret even the smallest things and to learn to read between the lines. If we practice this ability often, we will learn to see in life what cannot be seen externally. This ability is not “magic,” “sorcery,” or “supernatural-eye-opening.” No. If something is magical, transcends everything that exists – then it is the person and his existence. Our dreams of magic, of special things that we wish we could accomplish: we don’t need them. Because we are “magic” ourselves. Me, you: a miracle, something that we have never really noticed, something that is more than just chemistry or biology, more than just a piece of “nature”.
For a long time I gave up hope of saving humanity – and by that I mean: the people around me – because I thought it was just foolish. But today I realized that God has not given up hope because every second he brings another life into the world. If He hasn’t given up, how should I if I am part of His hope? He sent me into my life, unique as I am and in spite of everything.
Everything, whether animals, people or plants, everything is HOPE, because otherwise it would not exist and offer our lives something that enriches us – a life full of miracles. Certainly one or the other asks: “Nevertheless: Why did He create us and then leave us alone?” And this question is justified. I myself ask this question for days and nights: “Why did You leave us alone, why did You leave me alone?” But I never thought that there is a lot in life that we cannot explain. Then why do we need an explanation for this? After all, there is no evidence that God exists and yet we believe in It. We love people and not just the family or people who help us – and do we have an explanation for this?
Why do you love without putting your eyes first (i.e. only loving those who are physically beautiful) or why love hurts and heals at the same time. Example: The love between a mother and her child. There will always be an argument where you say things that hurt each other out of anger, but you still love each other.
There is no explanation for so many things, but we look for an explanation in scientifically provable things, although they do not need one. Because sometimes we just don’t see the obvious, e.g. why a person cries even though he seems happy or why tears taste salty. We scientifically investigate very complicated things that are far removed from our everyday lives, but we cannot investigate something that happens to us all the time and affects much more, such as crying, or we simply do not question it. It seems so obvious that it doesn’t need an explanation. Because it’s something that you feel. It is also a miracle, but it is not recognized as a MIRACLE. Try to describe anger or sadness one hundred percent exactly in words, we can only compare it with things that are externally painful. We cannot find precise words for what cannot be seen with the eyes. But we still feel it very clearly, like anger or sadness, and it sometimes completely wears us out. And yet we don’t bother to take a closer look, to examine WHAT is beating us down there. But where do you teach us that? Even in school, where you should actually learn something, you leave that completely in the background. We are very rarely taught to think about ourselves and everything that IS IN US – because you just don’t see it.
Life can hurt, no matter how good you are or how fair you behave or want to behave. Many will not understand this, this pain that burns and hurts like an infinite fire in you. But this pain can be erased when you are ready to do it yourself. The more we look into the future, the more the hatred and the ego increase because we only see each other in the film “My Life”. Then why not just learn to see the world as ONE LIFE and to empathize with others – in the HERE AND NOW? ME AND THE OTHER are important. And without the one there is no other.
The only question I ask myself is, what would God do if He lived my life? Which people would He marginalize and which people would He take in his arms? What life would He build or develop or draw? Many people can help me, and I also gladly accept their help. But there are many questions people cannot answer and what if the question that I am asking myself right now in a certain decision, of all things, has my life in hand? There will never be an explanation for everything, but there will be many ways to get a little closer to the answer, to feel better, safer and more meaningful.
Sufloon, 16 years