Desire for the Ideal | Teen Ink

Desire for the Ideal

November 9, 2023
By Ethanhe BRONZE, Chengdu, Other
Ethanhe BRONZE, Chengdu, Other
4 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
Humans are born with missions


As a typical high school junior, I wake up in the morning and go to sleep at the end of the day. I go to school with the ambition to learn and the determination to pursue education. However, a problem arises: no one has ever told me what to do; I simply do what I believe I should do. Beyond this, I feel different. I consistently experience a strong sense of contradiction, torn between my desire for a peaceful existence and my waves of ambition. I feel trapped.

 

Then, things began to change, and the ideal day started to manifest. In a scorching summer, I sense each little moment, gazing at something I genuinely love throughout the day, savoring whispers from every breath of nature. The special sensation of the sun's rays pulling loose beads of sweat, shedding nothing but my ignorance, naivety, and impurities. The moment appears rich yet so mundane. However, the person I used to be had a different perspective. I was accustomed to waking up with birds, falling asleep when the moonlight bathed me in its glow across the entire grassland. All I needed to worry about was the direction the wind would take and how the clouds would wander across the sky. This person was none other than me from a while ago, expecting nothing from life, living out the wildest dreams. The feeling of excitement is hard to explain.

 

The ideal day now seems distant from me, yet it feels strangely familiar, almost as though I've encountered it in the past but never in the future. Those past days are precious enough for me to cherish. I once believed that my lover would be the moment I could never forget. Indeed, it seems to be true—the moment stops when memories take my final breath. In a sea of light, every little moment flashes before me. With a single blink, all past memories vanish, but they find a way to etch themselves into our hearts. Eventually, we idealize them because when we look back on our past, we also long for them.


The author's comments:

This is my piece of work that conveys my nostalgic feelings for the past, though given complex comparison and conflict within the bottom of my heart. Sometimes, I feel trapped by my inherent self. I want to seek for the days when I was young, living in a life ideal for me in the present. That moments feel far out of reach, when we look back on the past, we idealize them in a brand new perspective.


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