I see myself as an agent of change, not as a powerless person in a big world

By Nina Steele

With so much negativity in the world right now, it is easy to see why anyone will be pessimistic about the future. From political instability in many parts of the world to the rise of a celebrity culture that has inevitably led to rampant consumerism, there is no denying that looking at the world from those angles, the future looks bleak.

As a natural optimist, there are moments when I struggle under the sheer weight of negative energy. Thankfully, I always manage to get back on my feet and start again. I have come to the realisation that to be happy in today’s world, you have to make a conscious decision that that is what you want and seek it out. If you expect the world to create the conditions for your happiness, you will be sorely disappointed.

Take the Internet for example. It is a great tool that has revolutionised our lives in a way never seen before. Whatever you are looking for, you will find it on the Internet. Knowledge on pretty much everything is so readily available today that I often hear people say rightly that there is no longer an excuse for ignorance.

As we all know, the Internet can also be a negative force if used for that purpose. Cyber crimes and Internet trolls are a few examples of such negative forces and I myself experienced the latter some months ago. What I did with the trolls was to block them from my twitter page and that worked in preventing further abuse. I value the opportunity that social media gives me in terms of exposure, but I also understand that like everything in life, it is not perfect.

I am an optimist partly because I do understand that life is never going to be perfect and that instead of complaining all the time, I should play my part in making things better. That is one of the reasons why I chose to become an advocate for people without children. For me pessimism is akin to seeing the problems of the world as someone else’s. A pessimist believes that problems are too great for any one person to solve, not realising that great moments of change were started by individuals. From Gandhi to Martin Luther King, individuals have shown that we can indeed be the change that we want to see in the world.

Instead of complaining, why not make changes to your own life that reflect how you want the world around you to be? What we fail to understand is that, when we change, people around us change as well and then it is whole communities. I see myself as an agent of change, not as a powerless person in a big world. After all, the world is made up of individuals such as you and I and as such, we can shape it to our liking.

If you are unhappy with things as they stand, don’t wait for others to make the first move, take the lead and make things happen. Don’t be like those people who complain about the political system, yet never bother to vote, because they believe that it will not make a difference.

Yes the world may never be perfect, but at least, we can make it that much better not only for ourselves, but for future generations as well.