We can become so wrapped up in our own world sometimes. It can be anything. All we think about is how wrong the other side is.

You break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, and all that comes out is how much of a pain they were. How they did things that upset you.

You get fired and all you can think about is how unfair it is. How they never gave you just compensation for your hard work.

Social policy is enacted or not enacted, and we throw around the terms “liberal” and “conservative” like we were describing sides in a new Civil War.

It’s like we can’t ever find something we want for ourselves, so we have to base our positions, our beliefs, our thoughts and our lives around what we oppose. I can’t bring myself to support A but I hate B so much that I’ll go down A’s route.

I can’t stand that line of thinking. It’s too depressing for my tastes. Why do we have such fear, such aversion to actually following through with what we want? Is it because doing so leads us down the hardest road, the most difficult path? Do we need to define ourselves by the battles we fight and the enemies we’ve faced?

It cripples me with sadness when I think about how much hate and contempt we have for other human beings, and the reasons for it always seem to be the most stupid, pointless, meaningless reasons one could imagine. I’ve heard some of the most absurd things: “Obama sounds like Osama, therefore he’s anti-American and I hate him.” “McCain is a warmonger and typical crusading right-wing nutjob.” “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”

I literally cry when I think of the sadness and despair we pile onto each other just because something is different from what we see as ideal or right. Someone or something doesn’t fit our schema of perfection, so we purge it. Everyone does this, even those who see themselves as victims.

This is a trying time for us. Some of us are still unsure of what we want to do with our lives. Some of us are unsure of who we are. There is so much of the world yet to experience. I just want people to know that they should have a drive to live life, because they certainly have the right.

Everything’s changing, and for the first time in a while, a lot of us don’t know where to go next. We like the independence of having choices, but we’re also scared, not knowing where these choices will lead. We ask ourselves, “Can I really have my dream life?”

We want to, but for some reason we get scared. We become jealous, selfish creatures who hate those who are different. We turn our negative emotions and thoughts onto them because — I think — we despise them for not being trapped in the same box we are.

I don’t want you to read this and think of me as a progressive, even if you agree with that line of thinking. Conversely, I don’t want to be thought of as ally to conservatism. I’m not any kind of label when I plead this case for life. I’m just another human being, encouraging you to live.

For myself, I guess I’ll just try my best to keep walking forward, trying to make my life one that makes me happy and fulfilled — my own life. There will be ups and downs just like there always are, but that’s not a reason to give up. It’s a reason to keep pressing on.

When I’ve given peace and hope to a few more people (including myself) I know I’ve done good. Leaving a place, a person, or a time just a little bit better than how I found it.

I hope you feel a little bit better, reader.