Indifference does make a difference

Do something; because indifference does make a difference. It enables the issues in the world to transpire and continue. It does have an effect: it enables the inflictor.

“Change your shorts”, my mother would say every time I walked downstairs with something comfortable and apparently “risque”. A “you can’t wear that”, here and there every time I looked too obscene… even in my own house, even in my own room, I cannot wear my clothes. My natural, and sweet reaction would be to not say anything at all. The silence was my response, as a method of gradually tip-toeing out of the scream-off we would have if I had responded with any form of disagreement. Somehow, now, however, in the latter part of my teenage-hood, I agree with her. I no longer feel comfortable wearing short-shorts anywhere, not even to the bottom floor of my house where I may be witnessed by the public and receive salacious stares. From the girl who wore Game of Thrones shirts tucked into barely-there shorts to Chipotle in the States, to the girl who wears either sweatpants or long-jeans in her, exceptionally warmer, home country.

Exposing clothes we choose to wear is considered rude, covering ourselves is considered self-protection, and not walking on the streets at night alone is considered common sense.

We tend to hide certain truths that are quite obvious - truths that are in our face. Truths that we reject. We respect everything, except for one another and ourselves, to the very core we are only respecting the expectations placed on us when we were too tender to even speak. We are taught from the age we started crawling to be respectful, yes, respectful of the submissive position we are all placed in.

Most of us have traveled chapters by ourselves, in our own little cliques of high, middle and low class. But, society never improves that way. Nothing ever really changes if some class or group or clique or other still decides to ruin it. We all have the ability to shape the world and the community around us… and indifference does, inevitably, make a difference - too.

We live in this dystopian country, where disease is ridding people of their freedom, pollution is ridding people of their air, and people are ridding people of their own rights. We live life each day not acknowledging some things while worrying far too much about others. We all know that there is nothing that can be desired if there is no acknowledgment of its possibility. Often our greatest desires are money and material, but aside from that, we don’t really notice one of the main reasons why our society remains underdeveloped. People do not speak up. We are confined to the spaces we were placed in instinctively - culturally. We live in these limits because we’re afraid of disrupting this so-called peace we’ve ‘fostered’.

I wish I lived in a world where I wasn’t compelled daily to feel like I had to do something to make a change - a world where I looked and didn’t see something going wrong. In retrospect, I wish I had spoken sooner, but I never had the courage to do so. Seeing the worst and the better, but only understanding that intangible yet easily comprehensible ‘best’ is something I can’t continue to do. I don’t want to linger in the ‘later’ and forget about the present that we have - the one that we control.

There are so many reasons we can be grateful, and there are so many reasons we should be worried and angry. Everyone has an opinion towards something, some dislike, and some dissatisfaction; it needs to be sparked into disruption. Anyone can make a change about anything.

Personally, for me, I came to the conclusion that if I weren’t going to wear short pants in public, it’s because I don’t want to - and, not because, I feel completely unsafe. I know this is true, because, in my unnamed country, we don’t speak about what we deserve, or what we’re missing; we just go with what we have and we follow everyone else in power’s lead, leaving them in charge of the jeopardy that continues to play in our society. I know that the societies that are taught to speak up are some, slowly crawling out of their shells, and others, making protests and screaming, while in others, people are threatened before we even have the chance to express our views.

I’m not indifferent, but I’ve expressed that I was nearly my whole life. In fear of being controversial or incorrect. I’ve come to realize that it’s not how this world works. No one is really wrong. Even if you disagree with me, you might have a point. But, without stating it, nothing can ever really be proven correct or incorrect. From me to you: just do it. Even if it’s anonymous. We need it more now than ever.