My Hope for the Future

My junior year I was sitting with one of my best friends at lunch, playing on my phone and reading a Cosmopolitan article about yet another wild Kardashian antic, when it suddenly struck me how much America has changed from the time it was founded to today. Today all we hear about in the news are corrupt politicians, drug addicted celebrities, or horrific crimes; whereas in the 1700’s the news that rocked the world wasn’t that Justin Bieber cancelled his world tour but that a nation of immigrants found the courage to stand up to their oppressors, that a ragtag group of idealists stood up to the largest empire on earth and won, and that a brand new country founded on the principles of freedom and equality rose to power.  

My hope for the future of my country is that we can once again return to our former glory by becoming a country once again focused on standing up for freedom even in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity. I believe that America has this capability. We are a country of dreamers- who can dream of a better world; with thinkers- who can think of solutions to even the toughest problems; with soldiers- who can fight for the oppressed- and with children who can learn from the mistakes of the past in order to ensure a brighter future.

America has already started this process; we are a nation of students striving to master biology, chemistry, ecology, calculus, technology and languages- you name it! We learn in an effort to benefit humanity- and I learn with the hopes of one day curing cancer. My hope is that America will once again return to the mindset in which our most important task is the defense of freedom. However, unlike in the 1700’s we aren’t just fighting a rival government. Today we fight to free ourselves from the oppressive nature of disease, poverty, and ignorance. It is our duty to use the knowledge given to us by the people of the past in order to free our future. As Nelson Mandela said, “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others,”. The America I hope for not only accepts this quote as truth but lives by it and uses their intelligence and determination to free the people around them.  

I will contribute to the America I hope for by becoming a computational biologist and freeing us all from the tyranny that is cancer. I saw firsthand the ravages of this disease when my grandma was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia my sophomore year. First chemotherapy stripped her of her hair and immune system, then a bone marrow transplant kept her locked up in a tiny hospital room for months, and finally her immune system was so compromised that she passed away last November due to so called “vanilla pneumonia” which is supposedly the easiest type of pneumonia to treat. Cancer robbed her of the chance to see me go to prom and is the reason why she will never attend my wedding day. The America I hope for will cease focusing on the meaningless and will instead direct all of their willpower and attention to freeing people of their afflictions, whatever they may be. My hope is that Alzheimer’s will never again rob people of their memories, that strokes will never again steal people’s words and that cancer will never again claim a life.

My hope is that America once again dedicates itself to the pursuit of Freedom and that one day we will all be able to live completely free.