If I could see into the future, I’m not sure I would like what I saw. In my mind, it always seems to be a swirling mass of chaos. Though I also believe the future could bring lots of good. Pondering this subject, I can think of four categories for the happenings of the future; the good that can come to my family and me, the trials and hardships that may come to my family and myself, the great things that the “world” can achieve and finally my fears and sadness for the future of our world. Although I hope much, sadly I fear much more for the world and myself.

All my life I’ve been a pretty straight arrow. The worst grade I’ve ever gotten on my report card is an A. In sports I’ve done well, winning championships and succeeding in other ways. This could help me become who I hope to be. The future in my mind starts at the end of high school; this marks the end of one stage of my life. At this point I’d hope to go on a mission for the LDS church. This would help strengthen me in many ways. This is were the previous mentioned success in school is going to come in. After my mission I expect to go to college to get an amazing education and get my chosen career underway. After that I hope to have a family. One of my biggest hopes is that I’ll be successful in my chosen occupation. My greatest hope though is that along the way minimal impact from the disintegrating outside world will affect my inner sphere of people. This is a lot to hope for and the last one is probably the hardest one of all.

The one thing that matters most to me is my family and friends. Helping them to succeed and protecting them are of my utmost priorities. With life progressing this is getting harder and harder. In life I don’t fear much-- this may seem all macho and cocky, but let me finish— other than seeing myself fail and others around me fail. I’m not talking about on a test or anything like that, I’m talkin’ life failure, serious failure. Another fear I have is of cancer. Both of my Grandmothers died of cancer while my parents were still in their teens, and my aunt is a recovering cancer victim. With that history who knows who will get cancer in my family. A more recent fear that has sprung up in my mind is public education. The leaders of our nation and community have made some questionable decisions. The future of everyone rests on education; with lesser forms of it life could become more challenging. All of these things swirl around in the back of my conscious, ever-present to remind me of their existence. Reminding me of what I must overcome to succeed.

Even though there is much bad in the world, some parts do show great promise. One of my favorite things is new technology. It seems as though more and more comes each day. Life will become easier with all this new technology; this is my hope. Another thing that I hope for is that more people will become involved in many areas. The biggest ones are the fights against: poverty, pollution, obesity, corruption, drugs/alcohol and crime. All these things I hope can someday be eradicated. I also hope that one day people will see the “bigger picture” and become less selfish and more charitable. This would greatly stabilize our unstable world. All these things that I hope for, I believe will someday come true, they are not wild grasps in the dark.

I believe that man must struggle and be broken, to grow and build. Sadly I fear that soon we will all suffer greatly. Now I don’t mean this as a doomsday prophecy, these are just the fears for the world of a 13-year-old kid. I truly fear that soon there will be more and more animosity between countries. Wars over: land, money, and power. I fear that because of this poverty rates will increase. More people without a country; homeless. Pollution is another problem. Sadly our world may soon be too dirty to live outside in for some people with illnesses. What I fear most though, is fear itself. What fear will do to people, how it will change them. I fear that the havens from evil will become limited. That it will be hard to raise a family in that sort of world. Though in the end I think we’ll all be stronger as a people, and for the lack of a better phrase, “everything will be all right.”

I fear a lot for the world and how it will affect the others around me. To triumph fear though, you must have hope. What I fear and hope for are: I hope for a good outcome for my family, I fear the struggle that can harm myself and others close to me, I hope for the advances the world could have, but I fear the evils of the world. These are my hopes and fears for the world, I’d better start preparing for them now.