Real talk: sometimes, the world can be really shitty. I’m imagining that resonates with most of you, especially with everything that is happening in the present day. Today’s post has two parts because I feel like both concepts revolve around the same theme of staying true to yourself, no matter what the world throws at you.
Stay gold, Ponyboy. The Outsiders continues to be one of my favorite books of all time. When we were young, before the world tried to tarnish us, we were gold. Everything feels new and every dawn brought a new day, and it’s a good way to be. However, nothing gold can stay…or so says Robert Frost, meaning all good things must come to an end. While I do agree that everything is temporary – our lives aren’t going to stay gold forever – I believe that we can choose to stay gold.
That brings us to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – a hero to many, including myself. We must have the awareness that, in our lives, there will be disappointments. The world will try to tarnish us, and we will have to grow older. Yet, we will always have the choice to choose hope. We will always have the choice to stay gold.
It won’t be easy; it takes effort, practice, and consistency. And in no way am I saying that we must stay gold and hopeful all the time. We are human and there will always be shitty things thrown at us; that is not under our control. What we can control is the way we respond.
We choose hope and we choose to stay gold.