“Is that too much to ask for?”
Breanna Wignal is a Brooklyn-based writer who absolutely adores the feeling of a pen between her fingers. “Not only has writing allowed me to thrive creatively, but it has also allowed me to free myself from the simplistic shackles of societal expectations in general, causing me to break free from any box before ever even being placed in one.”
“Our dreams won’t be tarnished, instead they’ll be illuminated, a world where we all live in harmony, able to trust love and support one another or is that too much to ask for?”
By Breanna Wignal
From a gun, to a bullet, to the bullet through his head, there’s a black man wishing, but what’s his wish if he’s dead? Holding onto pain you implanted in our brain, only left us feeling extremely insane. I wish you could see how amazing we are or are you too busy turning the corner when you see us from afar? It seriously hurts us all deep within because we are definitely far more than the color of our skin. There are so many shades; chocolates, caramels, browns, and gold. How could you not love us? And our beauty we hold. Your oppressing hand no longer holds us, because now we know you can never fully control us. I am from a world where we triumph through hate, each step we take greatly mitigates, mitigates the pressure placed upon us because of who we are, where we’re from, and who we love. I close my eyes and vividly see a world once pure without you and me. Can we ever make it back to when times were once serene? Or is that too much to envision? Too much to picture? Too much to imagine for us as human beings? Walking down the streets of New York City I take a look around and inhale the smell of rain that filled the air. Little children running around innocently unaware of the world that we live in, they reminded me of my once pure and innocent mind; oblivious to the meaning of life and what is to come in time. Beat down buildings still held a sense of simplistic beauty, much like how there is beauty in you and I even through our impurities. My feet moved instinctively one after the other, where am I going? When will I make it? I am going to the future just wait on it. Where there is an abundant amount of love to go around, where we can all truly come together as one, a future where there is more love than hate or is that too much to ask for, is it too late? A future where our past selves won’t dissipate however our mindsets differentiates from the ones we currently possess. No more chasing time and dreaming about tomorrow because “today” will quickly turn into yesterday, we as mankind can be the heroes of the future, coming together as a collective interlock hand by hand we can match our way towards the sun. Today I look out my window and unconsciously begin to wonder why? Why do we dwell on our past mistakes if we as human beings are capable of creating change once we fully allow that change to take its place? We are the future, we are our only hope, an ounce of injustice anywhere is a threat to any form of injustice everywhere. Acknowledging those that oppress a group of minorities just to feel superiority is the first step of displaying a possibility of a brighter future. Equality today is glorified and encouraged however as a black individual our voices are still inevitably suppressed, our voices so thin they almost crack like ice, THIS IS NOT RIGHT, we live inside our heads afraid to live our lives, mothers burying their children becomes so normalized. This pain...this baggage we’ve been carrying for so long it gets played out much like a repetitive song. Being shunned because of the people we love it becomes hard to truly feel alive. Someday in the future these problems may be resolved...equality and justice may finally be given to all. We attempt to bypass time by constantly referring to the future as “later on in life.” We say this to allude that time waits on no one, we say this because we are unprepared, and most importantly some of us are afraid of changes. When I close my eyes I can see vivid dreams spring to life, in the future we’ll be set free from our cocoons, our full potentials will be unlocked and we'll finally be able to live without fear. Our dreams won’t be tarnished, instead they’ll be illuminated, a world where we all live in harmony, able to trust love and support one another or is that too much to ask for? Too much to expect from mankind? I wish to see a world where wars are a thing of the past, I wish to see a world that possesses love that lasts. The city of New York can make it so far, we just need to nurture the seed of love in order to stop the war, the war in which we create...all of this comes from all our hate.