The Good Worth Fighting For

If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan you’re familiar with Sams speech to Frodo in the Two Towers. I won’t quote the entire conversation, but trust me, it’s worth looking up even if you aren’t into LOTR. Sam tells Frodo, “… there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.” Before this Sam talks about how darkness in the world is only a passing shadow, and that a new day will come. I can remember the first time I heard this speech while watching the movie with my two brothers, when I was probably around age eight. It made such an impression on me, filling me with excitement and making me want to seek adventure in this world that drives you to quit so often. Instead of feeling defeated by the darkness that is so present in the world, I felt the sense of discovery and hope.

The next day I went out with my brothers, fully clothed for a battle, our pretend swords and knives tucked into the waistbands of our pants. Although our neighbors allowed us onto their property we crossed onto it as if we were criminals, hiding from anyone in sight. We ran from one tree to the next, hiding our little bodies behind the trunks. I remember this day so vividly, we went on to cut down a considerable amount of bamboo that we would later use to build ourselves a teepee. We slept out in our teepee that night, watching the stars between the cracks of our pieces of bamboo. We woke with the sun the next morning just to go inside and watch The Twin Towers all over again.

I’m not so sure how in my elementary aged mind that quote made such an impression on me and my life. You would think being so young I would still be innocent and naïve to the horrors of the world, but having grown up with so much change, constantly being relocated to a new home, I think I saw things normal 8 year olds didn’t. I had seen the darkness of the world at a young age having grown up overseas and being exposed to so much. I had seen the teachers who thought I was “retarded” because I had trouble learning English again after moving back to America. This was the darkness I associated with when I heard Sam talk about it in the movie. I also saw the good worth fighting for that Sam spoke of, the teachers who were sympathetic and invited me into their homes for extra help, the friends who made relocating to a new school for the fifth time much easier, and my brothers who are still up for adventuring with me to this day.

The world can be scary and so can change, heck, just about anything can be scary in today’s world, but there is always a light of the end of the tunnel. Do not let the fear of the world keep you from discovering it. I think about that day, building the teepee with my brothers, when I’m facing fear or anxiety. Although we did nothing record breaking, it seemed that way to us. We were craving adventure and felt invincible building our teepee and sleeping in it that night. I try to remind myself of this feeling whenever I’m facing something difficult. Regardless of what the news and media tells us, there is so much good in the world both big and small, and it’s worth discovering.