What If We Changed It?

What if instead of asking, "When are you getting married?" we asked, "How have you been lately?" What if instead of saying, "You're too old to start over," we said, "It's never too late to begin." What if instead of telling people to be strong, we reminded them that it's okay to cry?

What if instead of asking children, "What do you want to become?" we asked, "What do you enjoy doing?" What if instead of judging people for where they are, we became curious about how they got there?

Sometimes the biggest changes don't begin with revolutions. They begin with a different question, a gentle sentence, or the willingness to actually see things from a different angle. We grow up inheriting ideas about the right age, the right job, the right time, and the right success without asking where they came from. But what if those ideas no longer help us? What if they are breaking, not building?

What if changing the way we speak could slowly change the way we think and the way we treat one another?

Instead of simply becoming who society shaped us to be, what if we chose compassion over conditioning and questioned what society taught us before passing it down to someone else?

-Chinenye from MANI