Inspiration Through Youth
I'm going to take a moment to reflect on something I witnessed today. I thought it would be a great story to share with you guys. I mean, with all the bad in the world at the moment, it's good to just sit down and think about the good things that still exist, like this story I'm about to tell you. It's fairly short, but I really want you to get the impact of it, because I hope, more than anything right now, that you can feel the same thing I felt when I witnessed it, because that feeling is certainly one of the best feelings in the world. I am volunteering at a Day Camp this summer. Today, while we were playing kickball, these two young kids walked in holding hands. All the kids remembered the girl from last year, and a chorus of "Lydia!"s were echoed throughout the open space outside where we were playing. Lydia smiled and asked if she and her brother could play. Of course we said yes and they went into the outfield. When it was the brother, Telly's, turn something went wrong. I'm not sure what for I had taken my eyes away from the game for only a second, but when I looked back, he was crying. He wasn't hurt, no, and later on he said that people were yelling at him and telling him how to play (he had never played before), but he was crying pretty heavily. I was sitting with the sister, Lydia, and I asked her if she wanted to go talk to her brother. She nodded her head and walked over to Telly, who, in an act I can assure you caused more than just me to go 'aww', wrapped his arms around her and buried his head in her chest. For the next minute they hugged, held hands, and Lydia, who is six, comforted her four-year-old brother. I'd like to note that the rest of the day, these two were connected to each other. Besides going to the bathroom, they did everything together. The love between them was plain as day, right there for everyone to see. It almost made me cry. And right when I was about to, this six-year-old named Brian came up to Telly while he was crying in Lydia's arms and said to Lydia, quote, "Tell him that that was the best kick I've ever seen in my life." Thankfully, I didn't end up crying, but the scene from that point on was nothing less than amazing, and cute, and it just shone with pure childlike innocence. Telly sat up and looked at Brian and Brian repeated what he said a few times: "That was a really good kick. Really, really good. The best I've ever seen!" Please, if you take anything from this, take the example these children are setting, and realize that there still is hope in this world. Hope coming straight from none-other than these 4-6 year-olds. Hope that took me by surprise. Hope that, above all, gave me hope as well. Kids like these are our future, and for the first time in a long time, I'm excited to see what the future has in store for us. I'm not scared or nervous or even worried; I'm truly enthusiastic about the life of the world to come.
July 3rd, 2010 at 06:07pm