Everyday I see people lose something in technology. The human like qualities have gone out the window and that does not make me old school but rather in touch with the past and the future as well. Things have become who we are rather than what we have. Things mean nothing though when someone loses them self in the process of trying to gain. No one can truly achieve everything they desire in one life. To do so your quality of life would diminish and the goal would become counterproductive. The ideal state would be to set one goal and more onto the next without interference from the changing world full of technology. I think there is something honorable in letting go of what is unnecessary.  It is in essence freeing yourself from the binds of what most perceive as evolution but what  I see as devaluing. Soon there will be no need for humans since robots can do better calibrations with minimal errors. Walmart won’t need cashiers. Starbucks won’t need someone to hold the cup for foam on a latte. I guess I think people are too involved with technology in a wrong way. To create a widening gap between the rich and poor with technology is not ok. To create a windmill to supply a town with power is. It is all up to those in power to decide how to apply technology to society but it is also up to us to not give in and buy things which do not support humanity as a whole. If something creates a negative impact it should not be supported. Our children are becoming less intelligent with convenience. They don’t know how to write cursive, complete sentences, and poetry. However, they can tell you how to change your facebook picture by the age of ten. Who cares? What is important is arming our nation not with guns but with beautiful minds. Minds that use their greatest talents to their advantage. Minds that are not told to go to college, follow the typical path, and get a job but rather minds that need no college and are created out of a self-image no one can shatter. An image so well drawn in the mind it does not need reassurance from another, it just needs itself.  Support your children but never lead them to the water. Let them find the lake themselves. Let them wander, feel lost, then redeem themselves. The happiest people are forged from the worst sometimes. The unhappy people are mostly faking their happiness. Be true to your children, your family, your friends, and most importantly yourself. There is no construct but what walls are created in the mind. Social norms can try but cannot succeed in defining someone who does not want to be defined. And some of the most influential people have freed themselves from judgments and past mistakes. They do not live in the past but rather lay the past in the back of their minds to avoid repetition. Our children, our students, our people are becoming repetitive. If everyone has the same degree, then everyone is without a job and it means nothing. It is not your paper but your mind that sets you apart. Think of what makes you happy, and share it with others.

Step outside America, breath the air, put down the Ipad and realize everything was here we needed from the beginning. Our desires can be shackles to ourselves and other people. Too much is simply too much and gives another person not enough. And unlike a lot of people I would like to sleep at night knowing I am not at fault for the widening gap between the rich and poor. And for those who are I hope someday you realize and give back to the community not because of guilt but because you wanted to. It is time to reinvent America as not the land of the free, but rather the land of the trying to be free. We must face the issues we have created for generations to come, derived from an unhealthy system which rewards the heartless and condemns the strong. We can no longer deny our nikes are no longer white but black with how much treading the majority in this country has done to succeed. We all have a bad story but together we can make the future promising. Thank you for my readers.

Laura Elisa