All right people, I’m not usually one to write about more serious topics, but I really feel like some of these things need to be said. Maybe in hopes that we as a human race will pull our heads out of our asses and start acting like the decent human beings, we all have the potential to be. I understand that most of the things I’m talking about are not new, but come on, it’s 2016 and it’s time for us to get our shit together.

I saw on Facebook the other day that the Great Barrier Reef was officially pronounced dead. Dead as in gone. Not coming back. When I read that, my heart ached and I wanted to cry. I’m not sure if some people realize how horrible of a thing that is. As a human race, we killed an amazing piece of nature, a place that is home to countless amounts of species. A place where people would fly from all over the world to go see and explore all of its wonders. Now I personally have never seen the Great Barrier Beef, and was I ever going to? Not sure, maybe, I would like to. It was nice to know that it was there if I wanted to. But now if I want to go see it, I will only be seeing our lack of responsibility to our own planet. And I don’t know about you, but that’s not something I want to pay to go see. Our lack of caring and sense of want to take care of our own earth is atrocious and needs to change or we’ll eventually have nothing left.

Ok, honestly, this next topic is silly in that fact that we even need to talk about something like it. Clowns. Really?! What drives someone to say, ‘You know what, I’m going to go around dressed up as a clown and scare the shit out of people.’ Why?? If you think because it’s funny, it’s not. It really isn’t. It’s a new low in society and the fact that it’s happening so much across the country and schools and towns are having to go on lockdowns because there’s a clown wandering around crazy. Not cool clowns, not cool. Find a new hobby, maybe one that actually benefits society instead of freaking it out.

Now I don’t want to talk too much about the election because it’s something that’s already talked about far too much and is everywhere, but I felt like it should be acknowledged because it’s so prevalent right now. All I have to say is that as a first time voter I’m disappointed that this is the first election that I get to vote in. I’m disappointed that we have reached an election where a lot of people (particularly younger people) don’t even want to vote because the candidates. That have candidates who admit to sexually assaulting women and who lie. It just sucks as a first time voter. That’s all.

Something else I feel like I have seen a lot of on social media are things about animal cruelty. Why?! Animals are our friends. They love us unconditionally and deserve a hell of a lot more than we give them. The fact that places are outlawing Pitbulls is sad. Every Pitbull I have personally ever met shows nothing but love and friendliness. And that’s all they want to give you. These animals love you unconditionally. And I’m not just talking about house pets here. People are developing ways to dye rhino and elephant horns and tusks so that they become useless to poachers. They need to do this because people are still hunting these creatures despite the fact that they have been endangered. Stop it.

At one point in time, I felt like at least once a week I would see things on social meeting saying, “Pray for….”. And I would wonder, well why are we praying for them, what happened? And the I would keep scrolling and come to learn of yet another attack on another city by some crazed terrorist group. I would learn of how many people were injured, and how many people lost their lives. Another tragedy. I understand that world peace is something that is a hard goal to accomplish, but the goal of no killing each other is a simpler one. Why do people think it is ok to kill others to get a point across? One that most people probably don’t even want listen to anyways. Everyone has their own beliefs and opinions, so why try to force yours on someone else? It doesn’t work like that. And killing people is not the way of going about trying to change people’s minds. Is world peace 100% realistic? Probably not if we’re being honest. But is accepting, at least on some kind of minor, non-threatening level, that other people can believe something different than you is possible? Yes.

Ok, this is one blows my mind. Drunk driving. Why do people do it? Why do they think it is ok to not only risk their own life, but the life of others, just do drive somewhere? Where do you need to go that is THAT important? I feel like there have been too many things in the news about drunk drivers killing people. And what’s worse is it seems like there are more attempts to warn people of how bad it is now. In schools with skits of what can happen and its consequences, on social media with awareness groups, and on TV with heartbreaking commercials. When will people start getting the message that this is not ok and that it’s an extremely selfish act?

Lastly, the topic of sexual assault. I’m not sure if I feel like this has been brought up a lot because I’m in college now and it’s unfortunately very prevalent on campuses, or it has been happening more period. Either way, it’s not ok. It seems like there has been a lot of awareness made about it, and strong commercials, and inspirational statements made. And yet, it still happens. We just recently faced a sickening example of this with Brock Turner at Stanford. I’m not trying to preach about this because I know there are already of lot of people and causes doing that, but I needs to be said. Sexual assault is not okay and should not be happening.

Ok. That was a lot of negatives, I know. I should probably have written about seeing the glass half full and talking about all the great things in the world. But you know what? Sometimes it’s ok to acknowledge how shitty things are. But when you’re done with that, you need to pick your head up and decide what you’re going to do about it. So… what are we gonna do about?