A Purposeful Return to Principle
I think it is quite obvious that I have taken some time away from my writings. And the reason for that is not that I haven’t had inspiration, nor a free moment of time to sit down and post about a question of life. It is that it has been three weeks now of this year, two-thousand-twenty-six, and I am uneasy about how I feel. Uneasy about my position and place. As a student, here in America. As an American, studying global politics and relations. As a woman, a Mexican-American woman whose dad wears very dark skin.
Over the past three weeks, I have been writing and thinking constantly. But when I would finish, I’d feel no urgency to post. I’d just wonder how a piece on the transition back to college or having homesickness for a person or growing older as my birthday approaches even matters when there is this looming, darkening presence overhead. It has creeped into the position and place we all are in.
Physically, we are in feet of snow and ice. Politically, we are in upheaval. Socially, we are all either in expansion or contraction or dismay. Personally, we are just trying to survive. I mean, are we not?
To speak bluntly, which is what this is all about, I will add that personally, in my present week's survival, I’ve woken up asking a lot of questions and feeling very angry. Not only at the state of the world, but also at how it is changing me, and us. I’ve said to myself and to my friends, I mean if I have to hear one more opinion article on the negative cognitive effects of AI or LLMs on students’ brains or see another photograph of masked men in blacked out SUVs terrorizing humans or hear of another instance of inconsideration from one of my friend’s friends, I don’t know what I’ll do, or who I’ll become.
Currently, I am just at this level of irritability, of tension. I complain about simple things. I judge others. I have the retention span of a 5 year old. I am fearful. I am losing my kindness. Or at least my ability to pretend to be kind. To have faith. To allow others the room to be ignorant. And that was never who I was. Nor was it ever a part of who I wanted to be.
So, I’ve been thinking about how I want to reclaim my pieces of writing here. How will I proceed in light of recent events? In this space. And I’ve decided, for myself, that I must carry on.
For the laws of expression. For the feats of imagination and creativity. For the responsibility of discussion. For the purpose of asking real questions of our world. And holding it accountable.
This post is focused on the question of how the world shapes us in its darkest moments, not solely in ours. So often, as I like to say, do we rely on the world to be as it is as we become better. We expect the sun to always shine at the dawn of a new day. But what do we do when the world stops spinning in the direction it always has? When the tides pull backwards? When progression is stopped? And history is erased, and repeated?
Well, I’m really not sure. I wish I had an answer. I wish I had definitive things, tangible things that we can each do. But I don’t. I’m not sure anyone knows whether to continue on, or to stop and look for a while. To acknowledge what’s happened, what’s happening.
Some stare too long and say the world is on fire. Others ignore and say it’ll pass. And I’m conflicted. And maybe there is a space for that too. Maybe there has to be for those of us who don’t know what to do, what to call it, who to blame. I mean, I do have some ideas.
I will offer, at least, that if you are feeling what I’m feeling: hopeless and angry, forcing me to become: anxious and irritable, join me in a return to principle. Don’t get consumed with anger.
The politics in the news cannot change the person, or people, we are inherently. At least, not easily or without a medium of distance. And if they could, well, that’d be a scary, dystopian reality.
If you believe in principles, whatever they may be, you should hold onto those in moments like this. When the wind lifts and pushes in the front of a hurricane, you board up the house to protect what’s within. What’s within, is you in your position and place. Continue protecting that. Board up the house from the wind of social media, of the news, of misinformation and conformity, of movement and hatred. That’s what I’m trying to do.
It’s a purposeful return.
I’ve started to read news articles, press releases, and governmental / institutional publications instead of watching TikTok news videos. I’ve tried to listen to entire speeches instead of small clips. I look at photos with larger contexts in mind. I listen to all sides to gain greater understanding. I make up my own mind. I maintain objectivity when subjectivity is the norm. I do what I can to support my principles. And sometimes, when I have to, I turn it all off too.
Right now, unfortunately, that might be all I can do in my present position and place. Although it might be frustrating, it is an act of defiance. It is education and self-preservation for the greater cause.
In the meantime, I hope my, our, kindness and compassion comes back. Not in the form of ignorance towards or acceptance for the political, social, physical, and personal situations we are in. Not in converting to the new normal of accusation, judgement, and division. Not in becoming what I actively disagree with. But by withstanding the darkness while holding onto dignity in principle.