"Consciousness"

Punk rock is more than a style. Many will disagree. But I know for myself, the whole leather jacket with patches, bondage pants, combat boots, liberty spikes and binge drinking never really clicked with me. But the message and ideals of the music held on tight to me. Many bands messages were always the quotes in my head. The music was my soundtrack to life. I never fit in. Rancid once said, "When I got the music, I got a place to go." I found a sense of peace and belonging in my headphones.
As time went on, I have found myself graduating college but always scraping to get by. I have older people in life, including my father, asking when I was going to grow up and get a "real" job. Out of respect I have always answered with a simple "I dont know."
My beliefs stand firm with the basic value that, I cannot live happily in excess in knowing that there are children and hardworking families starving and are unable to afford the basic necessities of life. I used to think that I needed all the new things to be happy. But thats when "consciousness" of compassion opened me up to realize that life is what we make it. That if we strive and suffer for the things we don't need we'll end up in a cycle of suffering. But once we realize that once we love ourselves and can take care of us, we can reach out and attempt to help others. The government, the very small rich elite and the corporations are definitely not going to help us. Once we realize that solidarity needs to be achieved amongst one another, then we can see change happen. We as humans, with ideas and ideals, have the capability to do so much. We have short time in this life, don't waste it by contently sitting and accepting all that life is to be finite. We have wings that are too big and too bright to be contained by the cages we have been put in. Help one another. Care about each other. Compassion isn't weak. Change is possible and inevitable, but be the change before it changes you.