With the general election wrapping up, it’s clear the outcome is not what many expected. The response has left some overwhelmed, depressed, frustrated and scared and they have every right to feel like this.
All over X, formerly known as Twitter, millions of people are venting their anger, blaming one another and speaking about how scared they are. Even though the whole situation feels hopeless, don’t succumb to that feeling of hopelessness.
As a cis male, I know that it’s easy and patronizing for me to say “everything is going to be okay,” but even I’m not sure if it is this time.
Watching the election put my anxiety at levels I haven’t experienced in a long time and it was soul crushing to see the results. In that moment I felt it was pointless to think we would even beat the hate and fear mongering.
I’m terrified for women and for the LGBTQ+ community who have every right to feel furious and scared and I’m angry that our futures lie in the hands of a convicted felon. Regardless, there’s a small part of me holding on to hope.
I view hope as a double-edged sword. In situations where there’s an unfavorable outcome, hope can help to lift spirits and change the mood. At the same time, hope can leave people wanting for situations that never occur and can lead to even bigger disappointments.
More often than not, I find when hope fails, the repercussions hit 10 times harder. Some days, I even wonder why I keep hoping for a better tomorrow because I know it’s not coming.
But if that’s the case, then why am I bothering to get out of bed? If I was hopeless and believed that change isn’t real, why don’t I pack things early and call it quits?
Because of our human nature. As humans we are emotional creatures and although we like to rely on logic, there are times where our instinct and emotions play a role in our decision making. Hope drives us to action and by having it, it stirs people to persevere and pursue the things that matter to them.
Too much hope can be painful, though, and this is where it gets tricky. We can’t overly rely on hope to carry us through, but instead we should use it as a way to motivate us to do better.
Too much hope is no different than having blind optimism, that’s why it’s ok to feel scared and angry, but we shouldn’t wallow in it too long. Instead, we have to use these emotions to motivate us and to persevere.
When you find that your emotions are weighing heavy on you, find loved ones to confide in, play video games, watch a favorite show or listen to a favorite song to lift your spirits up to help recharge. I understand it’s childish to think being hopeful is that powerful, but to me it’s what makes us unique.
By having a little bit of hope, we’ve managed to come so far and bounce back from different catastrophes in our history. The next four years are going to be tough and it may only get worse, but we have to keep holding on to hope.
We have every right to be terrified and furious so let those emotions out, but whatever we do don’t let it get the best of us. Let us use hope to drive those emotions to action and let’s do our part in overcoming hate.
