I Lived

By Tanya Kulkarni

Image via: weheartit.com

Technology has made phenomenal advancements. The world is moving at a rapid pace and everything about its rapidity is being captured, recorded and shared. We live in a generation that thrives on social media; the fact that we can remain connected with friends and family from every corner of the world by just a tap of a button is amazingly fascinating. The fact that we can go weeks without talking to someone, while, at the same time, being aware of exactly where they are, what they seem to be doing & with whom, simply by looking at their social media post is mind blowing. It makes distance inconsequential because all of a sudden, you’re as connected with the friend who might be out partying as you are with the friend who might be home.

At the same time, however, in this world of social media, I hope that romance, love, poetry, art, literature, friendships, adventure, connections and bonds are not lost. I hope you fall in love  with being alive. I hope you smile for that small amount of happiness that talking to your best-friend gave you. I hope when you are sad, you cry— unabashedly. I hope when you are angry, you scream and yell. I hope you feel every emotion deeply and widely. I hope that when your mind wonders, you are not afraid to explore the questions even though you can find the answers  on google. And I hope that when you finally fall in love, you write letters for them instead of just texting them a ‘hi’. I hope you dance in the car because your favorite song played on the radio, I hope that you smile at an old couple crossing the road & they smile back cause they know you’re one of the good ones. I hope you eat ice cream for breakfast and then complain about gaining weight, and I hope that you take risks and enjoy every small moment and not waste it as it passes by when you’re looking into your phone.

And that is when I’ll be able to say that you lived; and it wasn’t just technology that advanced, but you did too. You progressed.