EPISODE VII: MY FINDINGS

 

ORIGINAL SERIES, SEASON II

A thoughtful man thinking about his latest findings/Credit/Andrea Piacquadio

EPISODE VII: MY FINDINGS

When I took up this project. I did not know that I will end up here. It was my side mission aimed at fulfilling my curiosities. I had spent a lot of my time as a teenager among adults. And one thing was clear. There was something wrong. One and one was not making two. My mind could not wrap around it. There were countless mistakes grown up men and women were making. And I wondered why they are making all these mistakes. What was going on? Adults are supposed to know better. I wondered why I could not see better among these adults. Stuff kept happening and I could no longer take it. The element of getting away with it was cushioning adults. They were grownups and no one was going to beat the shit out of their mess. So they had grown comfortable with everything.

In fact, the relationship between adults and mistakes thrived. And no party was willing to admit the truth. That this relationship could be toxic. People learned to look the other way and moved on with life. The ideas of moving on and looking the other way formed my curiosity. I wanted to know why adults were not looking at that part. The part that suggested that there was something wrong. And no one was talking about it or concerned enough to fix a broken something. So I walked among them. I watched their every steps and continued to wonder why they were not still looking and solving something. This was a good project. The project was going to teach me a lot about the adult way of life. And I had the time and energy. I wanted to understand something. If pursuing my side project was going to provide the answers, I was not about to decline the offer.

I am going to gladly accept the offer. I have a nagging part in me that never stops looking or asking. I had to satisfy this part by carrying out an investigation. I was not these adults. I was a different person. If, they were comfortable ignoring. I was not going to ignore anything. I am going to look at everything. And the best part about the project was that, the adults did not know I was looking. Life was happening normally. People were going about their activities as they like it. Grown men and women were working hard. They were playing their part very devotedly. You could easily confuse their dedication and determination to a renaissance. But I moved past these tricks. My curiosity pushed me further and I learned several things. Among the things that I learned was the ugliness of irresponsibility.

I will not even rehash the irresponsibility theme. I am over it. You deal with it. But me, I do not want anything to do with it. I will not entertain being irresponsible. This is a weird behavior. I hate this behavior because it is a killer. It carries the potential to destroy good things. And trust me. You also don’t want anything to do with irresponsibility. Don’t regale it. Instead, get over it before it messes you around. I saw it break people apart. It was a painful experience. And you don’t want this experience on you or anyone you love. That was one of my findings. I had incredible time running and working on my project. The project created a platform for me to learn many things. It was not just about adults struggling in the big city. It was about life in general and people in society.

A scientist finding out trends in her latest research/Credit/Anna Shvets

A lot of things happen in a typical day. And they do so in a society. The natural person is usually at the center of these happenings. In fact, the natural person in society contributes a lot of material in almost all the events that take place in society. My findings revealed a second theme concerning the same adults living in society. There are actually, two groups of adults. A group that realizes and overcomes its challenges and make progress. And the second group that succumbs to its adversities. The struggle that these two groups go through is not physical. The struggle is psychological. It takes place in the mind. And the mind carries a lot of things. There are influences from several places in the mind. And normal human beings are supposed to process all these events and walk away from those influences that do not serve them. Yet the battle, is not as easy as it sounds.   

People are supposed to make decisions. In certain occasions, people are supposed to take responsibility. And in some certain rare occasions, people are supposed to grow up. These issues, are not as simple. Making decisions look simple on the surface. However, in reality, people struggle to make the right decisions. People struggle to take responsibility. And not everyone knows that he/she is supposed to grow up. For some, the concept of growing up can take time because they think they are already adults. So nothing is easy. And these two groups in society demonstrate that truth. When someone has grown up in traumatic places or circumstances. It takes more than grace to find the right path. I could see all these things among adults in the big city. The two groups were very distinct. The first group fights to get ahead. And the second group wants to get ahead. However, courage and resilience are missing.

Hell breaks loose when people are supposed to grow up. People grow up physically and go through different phases in life. At face value, you see adults in society mingling. These adults go about their lives as any other normal person. It is only during rare occasions that some adults live their lives as not normal human beings. And those that lean in this direction get specialized attention. Physicians check them out and recommend treatment plans. However, the super majority of people in society gravitate towards normal. And when people are in that normal version, no one can see a problem. They do stuff that normal people do. They behave normal and fit into most of societal stereotypes. Only a small number of people can see something. In fact, you can also not tell that there are two groups of adults when everything looks okay.

Realizations only come up later. Later when some people seem to be moving ahead faster than other people. When the distinction of high and low starts becoming clearer, that is when some people learn that there are two groups of people in society. When no real progress is being made, that is when we all learn that there could be a problem. But again, life is busy. No one is going to stand somewhere and tell the other that they need to make progress. That will be gross in my estimations. The person speaking could be seen as meddling. But the differences between these two groups will become clearer with change of time. Even when this clarity exists for everyone to see. No one will say something. Because that is not how we are socialized. You don’t call out people or speak the truth. You just pretend.

People in society will continue doing what they love doing. People will stick with what they know or make it appear the way they want. Some will be running away from their problems, while others will try and face the difficult parts of their lives. Some will choose to see their challenges and learn the best approach to solve them. The group that ends up with this type of thinking or seeing things will make progress. The group will experience something like an awakening in them and make decisions that serve them. The group will still face battles in the mind. However, this time, individuals would be choosing to overcome. They will be sending signals of resilience and growth in their mind. As a result, their circumstances will change. Their lives will become better. They will also begin to enjoy life and while at it learn many other important lessons.

A curious man thinking of how to present his findings/Credit/ Cottonbro Studio

However, the second group will continue to struggle. And since, the struggle is in the mind. No one will know that someone near them is struggling with decision making or growing up. No one will even know that the second group is struggling with reconciling things in their lives. Life will be normal. Everything will appear okay. But in private spaces, there will be bitter truths. The second group would want nothing to do with that truth. The group will continue to hide or find the best ways to cover the truth. And society will help the second group hide. Society will float around numerous stereotypes and myths. These myths will help some people run as far as, they can from reality. There will be excuses and a lot of justifications. People will not be willing to take responsibility. The problem will be other people. Not the individual facing the problem.

In other situations, prejudice will prevent the second group from making progress. They will struggle to get forward because they are stuck in one place in their mind. The group will remain at a limbo. This means that individuals in this group will not be changing old bad habits on one hand. And on the second hand, the group will not be willing to open up enough to learn new things that challenge their comfort zones. So they will get stuck in indecision. And no one will know about it. They will walk around as normal people. And society will accept that they are normal human beings. However, deep inside, the second group has a problem. The group struggles with finding enough motivation on its own. The group lacks courage to face its challenges and get over some things. Life will continue to happen and differences will grow.

No one could tell me these things. I had to have the curiosity and energy to learn them. The project was good. It led me to these findings. I learned that the battle in the mind is the most difficult. It is difficult because it is silent. You never get to see it. Only people facing the struggle understand how difficult it is. Breaking the cycle of bad thought patterns and habits is difficult. It requires courage and determination. In most occasions, courage is not there. And the battle grows into fierce and most individuals just give up. They lack the energy to fight for what they deserve. They allow the past to cloud their present. And things suddenly become complicated. The past prevents their minds from seeing and living in the present. And you see people in society demonstrating different styles of life. And you get tempted to think that those styles are as a result of social justice.

In reality however, it is not because of social justice issues. It is grown up men and women struggling to overcome battles in their minds. Some of these men and women let their challenges to develop into heavy burdens. And when these burdens become too difficult to lift. They transition into obstacles. The obstacles create gridlocks that further make people recline. When people fail to lift these burdens. They cannot get to their next destination. People cannot move on to the next thing they want so badly. So some become stuck and learn to accept. That perhaps, that is how fate wants them to be or live their lives. And life becomes just boring for the second group. Because according to them, they have tried everything. And they have also reached their limits. They are fighting no more.

There was so much that my findings revealed. Society is complicated and so are the people. Threats that challenge human beings always come from within. Some people see them, while others don’t. And other people learn about these threats after a long time. A long time, when life has had its course on them. The adults that I mingled with did not know that I learned all these things about them. But on second thought, no adult would have told me what my findings revealed. I had to investigate to learn. This is also the best thing about freedom. When you use it properly.  Freedom frees you from little cells in your mind. You learn to go past your limits and what everyone else says or knows.