Stand for Anything

The first time I wrote an opinion paper I was in the sixth grade.

The first time I failed a paper I was in the sixth grade.

The feedback my teacher scrawled in blood red ink on the accompanying rubric was, "Stand for something or you'll fall for anything".

In all honesty, I don't know how someone could claim to even grade an opinion paper. How is another person going to determine the worth of my views? Based on a set of boxes and a black and white grading scale? That only ends in red.

Perhaps my voice wasn't strong enough. Perhaps it didn't assault their senses or leap of the paper to violently grab their attention and force them to my side. But then what would their rubrics have said? "You fell for anything"?

It would have been prudent of me, as a sixth grader, to have told my teacher I had stood. Then there would have been no red, just black and white and smiles. Unfortunately, I had a disliking for that kind of solidarity and enjoyed the way the red words struck it out.

The second time I felt afraid I was a freshmen in college.

The second time I saw the world brought to its knees I was a freshman in college.

The first post on my Facebook feed was a silhouette of a soldier accompanied by a caption saying, "Stand for something, or you'll fall for anything".

In all honesty, no. Standing and falling are not mutually exclusive. What about running, and writing, and singing? What about sitting, or walking, or getting back up? I refuse to believe that only ends in red.

And yeah, perhaps my 'something' wasn't strong enough. Perhaps their 'anything' assaulted my morning newspaper or made me wake up the next morning violently sweating because I was forced to watch people be senselessly killed. But then what precisely was my purpose for getting out of bed that morning? Standing for anything?

It is no longer prudent for me, or any one of you, to stand for something. It is not a something, it is a one thing, and it is you. I stand for you, he stands for you, and you stand for you, because unfortunately there isn't anything like you. And if I fell for anything else, or tried to make anything else my something, the one thing in my rubric would be red.

The third time I fell I was a single person.

The third time I got up I was a million voices.