By Philip Riley

Hope, by definition means: a desire or wish accompanied by confidence or expectation. Most of us live for hope; a lot of us pray for it; while others, we give up on hope entirely.  Not because we are pessimists, but because we understand why the Greeks considered it to be as dangerous as one of the world’s evils. When we are young society teaches us to believe in hope, but what they don’t teach us is the reality that hides behind it. You see, hope can take an individual to their wildest dreams. Or, drag them to a hell of their own insanity.
 
Yes my view on hope can be deemed as quite cynical, but I now see what hope can create: a false sense of security in a human. I hoped to get into my dream school; I hoped not to worry about my education financially; I hoped for my mother’s health. Now, I only live for today and wake up everyday to learn from hope. Each and every one of us has been blinded with hope and has succumbed to its spell. But it is time that we, as individuals, wake up and understand hope. But what I don’t get is why they say hope is the only thing people have left in this world? What we, as people, need to realize is that hope was put here to open our eyes and see what lies in front of us: a harsh reality.

If I had the chance to meet the individual who gave birth to this belief, I would…I wouldn’t know what I would do. But, I will ask them to create another belief or idea; maybe even combining hope and reality to give faith to those who have lost it. For it is said that hope is a pleasant acquaintance, but an unsafe friend.