the roots of my optimism
|| march, 2018
Where are the roots of my optimism? Or a better question, why am I optimistic at all? I’m constantly stressed out, always on the verge of a breakdown, and — Okay, maybe that’s a little overdramatic, but to some extent, it’s true. At 14, I was expected to start thinking about colleges. At 15, I was worried about prospective career options, and at 16, I was setting up my 401K and investing in stocks to ensure my future children’s success. What can I say? Being a teenager is hard.
Despite the inherent challenges that come with being a teenager (maybe not the 401K’s but challenges nevertheless), I seem to have found a way to stay continuously optimistic about my life and future. And every time I ask myself why I feel this positivity even when everything in my life seems to be falling apart, I realize that it’s because I have hope — Hope in myself, and more importantly, hope in those around me. Hope drives change, and it fosters optimism within ourselves, our communities, and the world.
One of my favorite stories growing up was about my dad and his journey to America. He grew up in a small, remote village in rural India, and faced many hardships throughout his childhood. Being one of the few people in his little community who received an education past high school, he obtained his bachelor’s degree in India and worked at a small tech company as a software engineer. Throughout this time, he maintained hope that he could one day come to America and achieve the highly idolized “American Dream.” After years of the same, tedious routine, he realized one day that he wanted to do something better. In the spur of a moment, my dad asked his parents for a loan to purchase a one-way plane ticket to the United States. Combined with his savings, he finally obtained the money needed to start a new life where he would have a chance to succeed. All my dad brought with him on that plane ride was a small briefcase, petty cash, and a whole lot of hope for the future. He was couch-surfing and living paycheck to paycheck. However, his optimism motivated him to attend a master’s program in Louisiana and eventually to work hard to secure employment and financial stability in California in hopes of giving his children a better life.
Inspired by my dad’s journey to America, I decided to organize a service trip to Cambodia. I helped out a small village school lacking educational resources by introducing and implementing sustainable programs for the students there. While at the village, I taught a girl empowerment program to all girls at the school, but little did I know that the outcome of my time there would result in my self-growth and learning.
I have never seen as much love and compassion in my life as I did in the hearts of these students. I began the program by talking about the future. Wanting to emphasize the importance and value of education, I asked each of the girls their hopes and dreams for the future when it came to their careers. The initial response I received was silence. All of the girls remained quiet, not showing willingness to answer the question. Wanting to change their hesitancy into enthusiasm, I decided to change the curriculum and try something new. I gathered the women volunteers and asked them to talk to the girls about their lived experiences. As each volunteer came up and discussed their unique career and life paths that brought them to where they stood today, I analyzed the reactions in the room. The visible excitement and beaming smiles from their faces were my indications that this plan succeeded. When the volunteers finished speaking, I decided to re-ask every girl in the room the same simple question I had started with: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. Slowly, the girls stood up one by one to give their answers. One wanted to be a lawyer, another a doctor. Others had dreams of being pilots, astronauts, artists, teachers and more. These young girls grew up lacking so many resources, with no guarantees if they could receive an education past middle school, yet their answers were filled with hope, excitement, and passion. Their optimism and their hopefulness were contagious, and reinforced just how powerful this force could be. We may not be able to see, hear, or physically touch the ideas of hope and optimism, but we can feel it in our spirits and our souls, and these girls taught me that.
We as a society must learn from the optimists in the world and embrace the concept of optimism. The only way to accomplish this goal, however, is through hope. Staying hopeful through hardships and frustrations builds a foundation for optimism. Through both my dad’s story and my experiences with the girls in Cambodia, it has become clear just how essential optimism is in order to foster growth within individuals and communities alike. So, the next time someone asks me about the roots of my optimism, my answer will be simple: hope. Hopefulness breeds optimism, and I have learned how beautiful life can be when you are an optimist.
Written & performed as a state finalist for the Optimist International Speech Competition (March, 2018)
