Cielo D., Kettering Fairmont High School
The Light in Darkness
The house was dark and cold, the night''s dinner consisted of sandwiches and cereal, and boredom quickly consumed us. After a cold February day of heavy snow, a power outage cast a dreariness over my family for an entire evening. At the time, I lived in southern Texas which had not received this much snow since I was too young to remember. This unique situation was one my mom, my siblings, and I were not prepared for.
We all huddled in my parent’s room under heavy blankets with a candle lit on the nightstand. My brother longed for video games, my sister wanted to watch a movie, and my mom was disappointed that she couldn’t cook dinner before the outage. Despite this, I saw the blackout as an exciting event that we’d likely never experience again, so I decided it would be most beneficial to make the most of it. I had the idea to play a game where we each imagine parts of a fictional story and take turns adding on to the narrative to form a silly tale. This seemingly simple game did not go as planned. This time, however, the reaction to the inconvenience was not negative. The room was filled with laughter as my six-year-old brother cluelessly turned the game into a singular narration of a hilarious story he made up with surprising ease. Seeing the smiles on my loved ones'' faces brought a sense of warmth to the chilly night. At that moment, I knew that this bonding memory would be one we would all cherish from then on.
Although this event may seem like an uninfluential conflict, it taught me the significance of a positive attitude in an environment where positivity is least expected. A shift in a group''s attitude can be the result of just one person changing their mindset or simply expressing already existing beliefs. Similar to the way in which negativity can spread like a disease, happiness presented by an individual can also be contagious and change the mood of a whole group. The ability to choose happiness should be one that everyone has, however, it is possible and valid that some may find this ability more difficult to reveal than others. An individual’s strength is dictated by their ability to acknowledge the causes of negativity then make the choice to create a positive environment for others or for themselves.
The morals I learned from this event continue to play important roles in my everyday experiences as well as the significant chapters of my life. Now and far ahead into the future, I anticipate having a positive, grateful, and happy outlook on life as a whole. While it may be easy to spend a lifetime intent on negativity, the quality of that life would be bleak compared to the much more extensive possibilities of a positive one. I will always carry the mindset that, like in a power outage, happiness is the light in the darkness of negativity.
