Platinum | Danielle

Resistant to corrosion.

For so long I’ve always thought of maturity as passionately fighting for what you believe in and striving to change the world. I imagined the older (and hopefully more wise) version of myself to be engaging people in dialogue about controversial topics and talking to them in the hopes of changing their minds.

However, the older I’ve gotten, the more I realized that the old adage is true: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. In my conquest of “maturity”, I was bulldozing over the opinions and emotions of others. I refused to listen and pigeonholed people without taking into account the gray areas that defined their story. I was brazen, headstrong, stubborn, and incredibly arrogant.

Changing the world can be a great idea. But what is more powerful and effective is starting inwards. You can not change other people, but you can change yourself. You can choose whether or not to react negatively, you can make choices to shape your future, and you can choose to hold onto your principles in a society that is losing all its common sense.

Platinum is a natural metal that is characterized by its unreactive nature. It does not respond easily to manipulation of its elements and holds fast to its original design. It does not deteriorate. Instead of trying to bend the opinions and emotions of others to conform to an ideal that I deem is appropriate and getting angry when they don’t comply, I will stand firm in my principles and not erode with the failing teachings of our society and lose my sanity.