The other week, when Conan O’Brien aired his final show, I admit I welled up a bit during his speech. His advice “Don’t be cynical” has been ringing in my ears. I am a self-admitted cynic, through and through. Pessimist, Debbie Downer, Realist to a point, these words could all be used aptly to describe me and my perspective.
Annoyance comes whenever I am faced with someone entirely the opposite, someone who sees roses and good spirits in even the worst of times. Let’s just admit it-when things are terrible, that light at the end of the tunnel is quite hard to keep envisioning.
I hear far too often that I am “too young” to be this way. However, what constitutes as the age limit for the glass half empty crowd? Is there a ceiling for the age range? I think that being so young, as we all are, shouldn’t necessarily mean that the world has already hardened us, but I do think that if we have been living with our eyes opened we will have much understanding as to why someone might find their reasoning relevant.
My confusion is this-we live in times that we are told over and over how hard it will be for us to find jobs. That the national debt has grown to incredibly massive amounts, that graduate programs are selective and demanding, that the great divide between socioeconomic classes still stands, and that people die in other countries from lack of resources that we have wasteful abundance of. Women still can’t earn equal pay, the LGBT community still faces admonishment, and yet people still devote themselves and their enjoyment to the belittling of others in the media.
What I am trying to say is that it is very hard to not be a cynic unless someone is missing a questionable segment of his or her brain. I’m not saying that one should be hyper-aware of every world problem that we face, but I do think there is an issue with never finding reason to see the bad instead of the good. The bad helps us realize how grateful we should be for the good. How the good comes from triumphing over the bad, and hopefully spearheads us into acting upon all that ails and changing it into something better.
So when we are all done with our college bubble and it is time for us to jump ship, I hope we can look at the glass objectively. It is half empty, someone will either drink it or spill it, but somehow you’ll refill it and get your fix. In your cynicism may you find peace, and eventually find your optimistic future.
Kristen Vasquez can be reached at kvasquez@ut.edu.
