Short Stories

Humans

I stood up at the podium, clearing my throat. I had spent hours writing this, ripping papers us, nearly breaking each and every pencil I had lying around until I had a wonderful basket full of snapped pencils sitting in my small wired basket.

It was time for the world to know who I was, for my words to be heard.

I cleared my throat once again before beginning my speech,

"We're all humans, walking this world. Whether we'd be beasts in human form, or angels, whether we'd be alone or surrounded by people who love and cherish us to the bottom of their hearts. Some of the things that we have to put up with is that pain and the fear. Fear of dying, pain from the act, fear of being hurt, pain from actually being hurt. You cannot control it. It's known as the cycle of life. Something that cannot be controlled.

"The world is full of monsters such as myself. Beasts who act wonderfully around specific people and terrible around others. Keeping everything bottled up and unleashing it without a second thought at the most random of times. Feelings that remain forever. Undeniable guilt and anger, not just passive anger, but anger that feasts on the good parts of a person's insides until there is nothing left but a cowardly soul who lives a life of lies and deceit. The concrete emotions that pains a person, that make someone not understand what is right and what is the most wrong. The strong sense that something isn't going to be okay when there is maybe a chance that something or someone could change that if you would just let them.

"Truth. Emotions. Betrayal. The feelings that run through the mind of a mad man. The details that plague their very soul. They despise themselves wholly, hating every inch of the person they have become and forgetting who they wished to be. Pain and anger, the bitter feelings of the world. And to top it off, fear. Just utterly living in fear, believing that something will happen, something quite negative that will change your future with one swift stroke of the paint brush. Living and knowing that each day could be your last, but refusing to live life to what is considered the fullest. Not being able to experience the fullest for lack of encouragement, money, positive emotions, strength.

"Money. This world is built upon money, the very thing that could easily destroy it as well. Money makes people beasts. Money could turn the purest heart into one of greed and lust after the green bills that will almost, believable, insure a somewhat decent future for someone. But how could that be? How could the future be set with money? There is nothing to set with the future, the future makes it self, it doesn't allow something as pitiful and as pointless as money get in the way of what is has planned.

"The fates won't allow it, if such things did exist. The three fates who decide who lives or dies, who strikes it rich and who ends up in the disgusting slums and sewers beneath us, to live and die forever alone and in poverty. That is what most of us will end up as. Money is a rotten thing, eating away at the souls of the rich man. Andrew Carnegie once said that a man who dies rich, shall die a disgrace. Or something along those lines. I may not have gotten a direct quote, but the lesson still remains.

"Lessons. There are many lessons that should be taught. How to tie your shoes, how to put on your pants the right way so you are not going to school with your zipper facing behind you, permanently planted on your rear for a day while your peers torment you. The most important is assuming that you know how to do the basic skills necessary for exceeding in school and futurely life. Whether it'd be running a business that will add to the modern day realism that is turning the minds of the future generation to white trash or a benefit that increases the mentality of the generations in a positive way without having to worry about them shooting up a school out of anxious anger, or robbing banks for attention, or killing puppies because they lack the positive encouragement needed to succeed in life.

" Some parents lack the need to give their children what they desperately strive for. Approval or prideful over them. Parents don't have much to be proud of these days because they are either expecting too much of children or just don't see the rapid growth being made and the skill set their children have set. Parents focus on the negative, judging their offsprings on the bad things they had done instead of the wonderful accomplishments they had made in school that day or the new skill they had developed that will lead them to one day run a successful business with enough people who are willing to continuously work there because it is a great place to be. Instead, parents tut it off, focusing on the fact that their child had been ten minutes late for school, dropping by a teacher's classroom for a bit of extra credit in a class that they are already exceeding it. '

"Thus, driving the young people into turning to drugs or crime or self injury, just to show that they are giving up. More or less rebelling against the past generation of irrational morons who don't understand the importance little things are to these kids. And by the time they have reached the teenage years, they are full out rebelling, whether it'd be punching students in the face and constantly getting suspended to showing up to math class high off their ass.

"The treatment is mostly self attention that is needed, but often denied. But what concerns me extremely is when some teenagers, teenagers seeking the attention of their peers more or less to gain popularity, turn to drugs and self harm just because they can. Their parents may be the best parents ever, supporting in any way, giving the teenager money for candy and books to use whenever. But all the teenager wants is to look down on and blatantly abuse the parents, by spitting on them metaphorically and treating them like dirt. Talking about how terrible their parents treat them, how awful their life is. How suicide is constantly on their minds when nothing is wrong at all. It is demeaning to the people who actually have problems in their lives.

"The problem is, is that the ones with actual terrible lives, will not speak up about it because they simply feel like everything is fine. They don't want to bother people with problems that don't concern them, thinking entirely that the teenager is at fault for the feelings that constantly cloud their vision with hatred and painful sadness that will last for eternity. It messes a person up. It hurts extremely, refusing any sort of justice that will help save a person from a spiraling, never ending pit of unhappiness and self torment. They continue on with their regular days, assuring the common world that they are okay, when really they are an empty shell of nothingness, feelings no pain and not a single emotion.

"Now, the teenager with the visible cuts on their wrists, the drugs hanging out of their pockets and the smack talking of teachers for no reason, the ones who are determined to cause up some riot just to get some sort of attention, those are the people who are looking down on a person who is physically and mentally in agony, crying for help without making a sound. The attention seeking morons who accuse the damaged of mockery and self attention bringing, making a fool out of the mental illness that dwells inside mortals with home problems.

"If you haven't noticed yet, the fakes are always posting pity-seeking comments on social media websites, constantly saying they are done with being treated like garbage, they are tired of their parents holding them back, they are tired of having to suffer with such an illness that torments them, even though all it does is make mindless imbeciles bow down to them and send their sympathies. Daily mentions of suicide and constant pleas for help that mean nothing. It's sickening and it makes me livid just thinking about the people who really need help. They are constantly being shoved under the seat to make room for the total assholes who are putting themselves up on a pedestal in order to rule over babbling buffoons who have no real idea what is happening around them.

"We are only humans, all striving for something that is willing to help us on our journey through this short existence of life. Unfortunately, the world is not going to change itself and most people will refuse to help shape it into a place that will help us live longer or live happier.

"I wouldn't suggest giving up as a good way to escape the horrors this disrespectful world has to offer, but something must happen and somethings must change. Or else we will dwell in this disgusting word, hating each other until total war breaks out everywhere, leaving nothing but death and destruction in it's wake."

I folded up my notes gently and tucked the slightly crumbled paper into my breast pocket before stepping off of the stage. The hall was filled with silence, the occasional shuffling of feet, retreating from the room with their phones in their shaking hands. I looked down, avoiding all eye contact.

It didn't matter what anyone had thought of me, all that had mattered was that I put my two cents in, that my point was heard. That was all that mattered to me anymore.