Rage; you feel it every day. You can’t quite explain why, but you just do. Everywhere you go there’s that lingering feeling of anger. No matter how much you try to delude yourself into believing in the good of mankind, that anger always finds its way back to you. Like today in class, you were having a pretty good day. It was a special day since you were going to ask a girl to prom, but then suddenly you got a buzz on your phone. You checked whom it could be and to your surprise it was your mom. You hoped it would be her just wishing you another good day however it was her complaining about how you forgot to take the dog out and some other meaningless task.
Your heart starts beating a familiar drum. Why is it your fault that the dog wasn’t taken out? There are four other adults in the house but for some reason you have to wake up at the crack of dawn and on top of getting ready for school, you have to take the dog out. Your mind starts spiraling, you start thinking of every single thing that slightly pisses you off. That guy who bumped into you on the stairs and didn’t apologize. Your friend who slapped you on the back of the neck. Your sister who called you names for not wanting to stay at a party. That time as a kid when you got your ass beat and you couldn’t fight back.
Now your mind has stopped thinking about the stupid dog and thinking about how much you hate yourself. You keep thinking about why you didn’t beat everyone’s ass who ever wronged you. That anger then turns to sadness, it makes you wonder why you are vulnerable. In every scenario listed, you didn’t scream or yell, you just kept your cool. You realize that the response to violence whether it be physical or verbal, only results in more violence. It makes you think about how angry the world is. How everyone feels wronged by everyone else. Wars are fought over anger. Lives lost due to the anger we all experience. You then think to yourself that the world could use one less angry person in the world. Someone to stop the anger by responding with kindness. You text your mom back a simple ok and go about your day.
Anger does not have to define you, you can’t simply ignore it. But you can choose to fight anger, and be something else. Be something better in this hateful world. At least you hope. So even though you may feel weak, choosing to show love and kindness despite anger is the strongest thing you can do.