By Alex Bonardi, TIWP Student

The rules, the rights and wrongs and the judgments. All of these things we live by. Without even trying, these things have created a world of perfectionism. Therefore, we live for perfection. We let it control us, let it take us places we never imagined or hoped to find ourselves, let it drag us left and right, torture us and degrade us. We let it hate on the people we were born to be, without us even noticing. The world is now a place that allows itself to be controlled by perfection. The world is now a place where people struggle to find happiness, to fit in, to be themselves, and to love one another. The rules have a way with the human race. They seem to suck us in. They find a way to define us, making diversity rarer and rarer by day. But if we take away the rules of nonsense, we will have a world where people can create their own paths to their own happiness. Happiness is a feeling that is woken up to, not worked for. Then, if we take away the rights and wrongs, the do’s and don’t’s, the yes’s and no’s that people enslave themselves to, we will have a world where where people can find themselves, accept who they are and proudly share it with the world. If we take away the judgements, the categorizing of humanity, the hate upon others, we will have found a world where people can truly love each other. With this love comes serenity. With this serenity comes thoughtfulness. And with these thoughts comes the idea that violence and hate are never the answer. With the elimination of rules, rights and wrongs and judgments, we will have created a beautiful world, a world where you wake up with a genuine feeling of happiness. Then you can get up and go enjoy the life around you, as you simply do what makes you you. You will have the freedom to express yourself proudly because you have found who you truly are, not who someone told you to be. And as you walk along the streets of your town you will be able to look down upon yourself and be proud of you and be proud of the people who surround you, the people who make up your world. This is what should define perfection.