I faced an inner tragedy as the world was shocked by an outer one these past couple of days. On Wednesday, I woke up the day after the election. I did not know what to feel. I quickly picked up my phone. I did not know if I wanted to know the results of the election. I was afraid. I mindlessly scrolled through social media. Deep down, I think I hoped to come across the election results. Soon enough, I did. I was in disbelief, and I had no reaction. Soon, my mom came into my room and realized I was already awake. When I said the election results out loud I started to cry. I remained frustrated for the rest of the day. I wanted to talk about it. I wanted to talk about it so badly but class after class my teachers and classmates pretended like nothing happened. Acted as though it was just another day. That bothered me so much. But I realized, for most of America, it is just another day. Because one of the most concealed aspects of privilege is that, while you can advocate for minority rights, you can also take a break. So many people are calling for us to forget about the election, to forget about the results and to just continue living our lives and being happy and loving. There is nothing wrong with that except some of us can’t just move on with our lives because our lives will never be the same. For instance, take this viral video of Stephen Colbert’s thoughts during the election: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXhFGO8R7aU. As much as I love Stephen Colbert, he is a white, straight, wealthy male, and he is speaking from a very privileged perspective. He can advocate for minority rights but at the end of the day he can always safely go home. After this election I don’t have that safety. And many others don’t either.
It seemed like the online world was so different from the real world. The election results consumed social media. I immersed myself into my online bubble and barely existed in the real world. I felt like everything that was happening in the real world wasn’t really happening to me. I felt like everything was reflecting and bouncing off of me. On social media I force myself to follow people with very different view points than me so that I can keep an open mind and always hear other people’s views, instead of just constantly reinforcing my own. And in the past I have been very active on social media but I stayed quiet. I don’t even know what to say. Thoughts swarm my brain and everything seems fake.
So while Oedipus’ story is a classical and quintessential example of tragedy, we all face tragedies in our own lives. And I do not just mean tragic events in the colloquial context. I really mean that we all go through moments where it feels like everything that happened after that moment is different. Those moments that change our outlook on life. And in this case, a moment that will change my world.
It seemed like the online world was so different from the real world. The election results consumed social media. I immersed myself into my online bubble and barely existed in the real world. I felt like everything that was happening in the real world wasn’t really happening to me. I felt like everything was reflecting and bouncing off of me. On social media I force myself to follow people with very different view points than me so that I can keep an open mind and always hear other people’s views, instead of just constantly reinforcing my own. And in the past I have been very active on social media but I stayed quiet. I don’t even know what to say. Thoughts swarm my brain and everything seems fake.
So while Oedipus’ story is a classical and quintessential example of tragedy, we all face tragedies in our own lives. And I do not just mean tragic events in the colloquial context. I really mean that we all go through moments where it feels like everything that happened after that moment is different. Those moments that change our outlook on life. And in this case, a moment that will change my world.