Purest Intentions Gone Wrong

As I sat on the steps waiting for the doors of school to open, I began my usual bouts of daydreaming and zoning out. As I began my usual routine, soft motions from my peripheral caught my eye. A little caterpillar was meandering around a leaf slowly gnawing the leaf thin. I instantly remembered these caterpillars since last semester when I was doing research on plants of cancer therapy interest, we learned about these caterpillars and how destructive they were to the plants. The professors would always take them off and even kill them often.

I watched this creature as it hungrily devoured the leaves, and I felt pity for it. Even it deserves to live, even it deserves to fight for its survival. Though many view it as a rudimentary creature, to me it was synonymous to humans as well. The caterpillar has no knowledge of how it is affecting the plant or other creatures; it is fighting to survive in this world just like every person.

In life, we often judge and clash with people because we believe that they are bad people because they do not have the same path and focus that we do. Though I do believe there should be some cohesiveness in society, everyone has their own path and way of going about it. Rather than supporting others in their endeavors, we only look to see how it affects or harm our own path.

All of this reminded me of a friend of mine. Last year, it seemed like everything in life was working against him trying to bring his bright future down. He has such a pure soul, but everyone forgot about him. It seems like in this day and age, no matter how pure a person’s intentions are, if they do not coincide with everyone else’s, if they are deemed a menace, then they must be exterminated. How often in life when someone does something that upsets you or confuses you, have you stepped back and looked at the situation. I know putting oneself in another’s shoes is such a trite statement, but I believe the strongest social strength a person can possess is empathy.

It seems as if my empathy is waning myself. I still am able to read people and analyze people very well, but I am losing my drive to empathize. I want someone to empathize with me for once, and that is so selfish. I should not live a life hoping someone tries to understand me. Like the caterpillar I believe that I can follow my own path despite what others may perceive of it, but unlike him I believe it is important to keep a low profile. In my quest for self-actualization, I hope to achieve that even more. Slowly fall deeper into myself in terms of my own path and duty. This world is not ready to cope without ignorance which seems to drive this society of misconceived notions. Until this is undone, I shall continue to follow my purpose, even it is in the shadows.