Blinks: Doors to the Future

Education is a fundamental human right.

We send our children to school because we believe that this is the first step towards a bright future. We encourage them to have fun, we tutor them with their lessons, we do everything we can to help them realize their dreams. We tell them that they can be anything, that there’s nothing they can’t do. We even give them the formula: hard work + perseverance + prayers. We make it sound so simple. And they believe it. Why shouldn’t they, when they know that we are never going to set them up for something that could hurt them, right?

What we don’t tell them is that we were once where they are now. That we, too, believed in our hearts that we were destined for greatness and will leave our mark in this world. We don’t tell them of that possibility that things can go wrong, somewhere somehow.We don’t tell them that it scares the hell out of us that they may not be given the opportunity to share their brilliance and make a difference. After all, it’s all about opportunities. With the current slow rate of this so-called economic recovery that is leaving even those with fancy degrees and impressive experience frustrated, opportunities are very limited — even if we are so determined to make our own opportunities.

When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat? – Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk

And for us, parents, it is very difficult to talk of it as a promise that will be fulfilled to our children while it threatens us to our very core.