It's important to fight for what you believe in, to defend what you believe is right and to constantly aspire to do what is just and true for yourself and the world. But too often we forget to stand back and to question, to think and to listen.

Reflect upon those times in elementary school when you and all those other young children were happily chatting in the classroom. Eventually, everyone's volume doubles, triples, and soon, it becomes a battle of who can speak over the other. As talkers, we barely noticed how the noise levels dramatically increased. We're all subconsciously fighting over the volume by raising our own, yet don't even realize that it's happening. To the teacher, the children's voices are clashing harder and harder against the air, each trying to be heard above the rest. Even as the educator tries to quiet the group, the voice gets lost in the sea of yelling and the children become even louder. Though the children's actions seem immature, look around and you'll see that we still have yet to grow out of this ignorance. Even years later we fail to recognize the volume of those around us and that of our own voices. We are so empowered by the idea of advocating, spreading, and defending our opinions that we forget to listen to what's around us. We carelessly walk around yelling at others because we think that's what will work. But how can you even believe that someone would be willing to listen if you are so focused on neglecting what others have to say?

We all unfortunately know a person who constantly speaks, yet refuses to listen. You're sitting there hopelessly listening to someone who solely discusses their life and opinions, continuing to direct the conversation to themselves like an endless cycle. However, can we even consider this a conversation if it's just one person refusing the other person to speak? This is society today. Amongst the great causes and activist groups happening right now, there are large groups of people who are blindly fighting against something they barely know, yet refuse to learn about. The quickness to silence, to lash against and to ignore other people and different beliefs are simply the fire fueling a larger fire, yet we still claim we want to better ourselves and the world. How can we expect to move forward if we are so occupied with pushing everyone else back? When fighting for our beliefs, how can we so hypocritically step on the beliefs of others? The answer is we can't, yet we continuously do.

It's so easy to sit in a room with people echoing your very voice. It's so simple to block out the noise and to hear just your own. It's so comfortable being in a safe zone where no one opposes you. Yet that doesn't mean that's what we should do. Imagine what we would be capable of if, beyond the words and beliefs we wanted to share, we earnestly listened to others? Perhaps then would we move forward.