A Look at the End of the World

It's the end of the world.

That's how it starts to feel as a high school student. A bad mark on a test, a low grade on a project, missing observations, running late, forgetting to study, giving up precious time on a weekend to write a blog--It's the end of the world!!! Right?

Adults may be chuckling at this, after all there are things like war in Afghanistan, Ebola in Africa, hunger in our own back yards. Those are real things to worry about, and that's not even the end of the world. However, teenagedom it's no funny business either. Statistics from the National Center for Children in Poverty, or the NCCP, shows that 20% of adolescents have a diagnosable mental disorder. Because of this, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers (Schwarz). The people that are being raised to be the leaders and innovators of tomorrow are dropping like flies from stress, anxiety, and depression. Sounds like a very final end to our proverbial world if you ask me.

Now, maybe this is due to the media, body shaming, or constant ghastly reports on the news. It's also possible that its psychological; the pressure and stress of a future and life that has to mean something. The 1,000 pound weight of Success looms like an fearsome beast as it crashes down on us with expectations. We are expected to find ourselves and be adults, but not grow up too fast or take on too much responsibility. This is an endless struggle for balance that we too often tip the scales of, fancying ourselves young adults. That's why any failure feels like its the end of the world, because we are convinced everything we do in these days will have an everlasting mark on our future. That one failure could domino into an unsuccessful lifetime. Its the end of our imaginary worlds.

Now this is the part of the post where we all start to wonder, what has this got to do with my backyard? Well, the fall is hitting its last legs, the ground if carpeted in leaves to say the very least and the coming days look bleak and dark. It's the end to my little world. *cue the dramatic sobbing*

Isn't it?

 

"I've never seen a flower radiate such joy..." 

(Field notes 5 Nov. 2014)

 

I first began to question the world's demise when I found this flower that I've never seen before. Its peaking out of the dead twigs reminiscent of bulbs that have already bit it. I found it happily soaking up the sun in its delicate bright yellow decadence. Clearly no one informed it that it was too late to bloom. From what I could see, it wouldn't have cared even if it had been told not to. Even sitting alone I  an empty dirt patch, I've never seen a flower radiate such joy and life. It refuses to end.

"They sit brashly and with confidence..."

(field notes 3 Nov. 2014)

 

This flower refuses to back down in the same way these newfound berries do. I've caught them growing in the bushes that are no longer shaded by the bald tree branches. The fiery leaves that crowd them seem to say that they won't go quietly. They sit brashly and with confidence on loaded branches even past their prime. Their soft squishy bodies speak of weakening but they stay as if they don't know the word. Even the birds dare not try them.

"The scrub-jay leaders continually shriek at one another..."

(field notes 6 Nov. 2014)

These birds have a resistance of their own. They sit and gossip in the trees, making their plots. They squabble and talk over each other in whining chirps and curious warbles. They hush with the approach of my footsteps as though they're hiding something from me and feigning innocence. The scrub-jay leaders continually shriek at one another between trees in secret code. They all settle in, rows upon rows, irremovable despite the chill. They do so because they know something we don't... the world's not ending.

It never has and it never is. In this life nothing has true permanence. There's certainly no everlasting despair from mistakes nor the weather--not empty trees or bad grades. The wonderful and tragic thing about time is that you can never stop it. Life will carry on even if we miss a step. These things we think are so important, so entirely earth shattering aren't even a ripple in the fabric of the cosmos.

We have no need to despair over the little things, the homework and the social awkwardness and the pressure and the changing of the seasons. It'll all pass. We just have to wait to see how it gets better. We have to let things in and also let things go.

Deep breath, the world is not ending.

Work Cited

Schwarz, Susan Wile. "Adolecent Mental Health in the United States." The National Center for Children in Poverty. N.p. June  2009. Web. 9 Nov. 2014.