UNCERTAINTY IS THE NEW PANDEMIC “I won’t lose the last trace of hope.” That’s what I kept telling myself for the last 10 years. Let me tell you something about hope: it is dangerous because if you get disappointed, it will take you ages to get back on your feet. But hope is crucial because, as a teenager, you should continuously remind yourself that everything you’re going through isn’t consistent, due to nothing being constant in life, and things keep shifting now and then. Never lose hope, because nothing can stop you if you are guided by hope. This may sound like a cliché article, and everything I am saying now may not make sense because your days are a roller coaster of emotions, and you’re stranded where you are. You believe that things will never get easier because now you are experiencing your darkest days, and wherever you look, you see misery. I FEEL YOU. When I was a teenager, every year, once or twice, I used to think it was the end of my world. And look at me, I survived every storm. I’m not going to lie to you, I am still fighting my demons to this day, but they are different demons. When we are grown-ups, we handle things differently. But patience was the key, as it is how I got to where I am today. And believe me, one day you look back and say, “Look how far I’ve come.” When Dreams Collide with Reality When you have everything planned out, you become frustrated, let alone not knowing what the future has for you. It’s always been like this, unexpected happenings, changes we didn’t anticipate, but now it’s even worse. Our teenagers are giving up! I’ve heard things that broke my heart in the last several weeks, especially now that people are returning to school and college. Imagine asking one teenager who just finished high school where he applied for college and getting the response: “I’m not going, I have to work and help my father feed our family.” And when I asked a teenager about her dreams, she said: “I don’t have any.” That was the most heartbreaking thing I’d ever heard. Those should have been the best moments of their lives, but look at them now, suffering with their entire existence. Uncertainty in a Torn Land Uncertainty is the worst feeling you can go through, and it worsens because you are a teenager living in a torn land like Lebanon. It’s not just the kids who are suffering; their parents are helpless, seeing their kids’ dreams come crashing down in a country that is already a graveyard for dreams. And those parents must choose between feeding and educating their children. It’s simply so cruel. Especially when you look around and see tiny kids working instead of going to school. The saddest part? We all feel helpless today, waiting for just a glimmer of hope to save those teenagers. But They Still Dream… Our teenagers are struggling, and we don’t know what to do about this. How can we help them? How can we make them believe that the world is their playground? That what they are going through now may change one day? How can I convince them that they should dream? That they can’t say, “I don’t have dreams.” Teenagers of Lebanon: “I have no dreams. Perhaps to be successful in life. Or to be enough. I am confused.”— Joy Abou Haydar “To be perfect. To be a dentist, an actor, a model, and to attend one day at Fashion Week.”— Salim Hamada “My dream is to become a K-pop idol singer/dancer.”— Kai Hamada “My dream is my desire to challenge myself to become a better person.”— Tatiana Bou Rjeily “My dream is to build an enormous empire by myself.”— Edmund Awad (16 years old) “To travel far away and live my best life.”— Celine Abou Merhi “To be an international actor and a fashion designer.”— Rabih Fajloun “I have too many dreams: to have a good life, a good job, a simple home with my lover, four kids, a dog, and my cat Simba.”— Lenah Hamoud I was amazed. After all they have been through, those amazing teenagers still have dreams as big as this universe. Some dreams seem ordinary, others are confusing, and some are daring, like the sixteen-year-old who wants to build an empire. But at least they still have dreams and hopes, and that’s what dazzled me. What gives me hope today is that, despite everything, those kids are still dreaming of a better future, a better world. And I pray that all their dreams come true, because those kids are the world’s future. Amin Jurdi (Mental Health Advocate) I always heard the word uncertainty, but I never realized the power it has over me until I went to therapy. A huge chunk of my anxiety was derived from uncertainty. Uncertainty in my future, uncertainty in my worth, and uncertainty in the strength I had to push through the storms I faced. I spent hours trying to rationalize my uncertainty. Long story short, we cannot rationalize it. It is illogical, and its fuel is our anxiety. People underestimate uncertainty because they run away from their anxiety rather than face it. I beat depression multiple times, but anxiety always escaped me. Instead of trying to beat it, I mastered the art of letting go. Another phrase we hear and underestimate. Uncertainty, like anxiety, comes from our lack of control. But guess what? A lot of things are out of our control. So instead of pondering how to gain that unattainable control, I focused on the control that I have in life. The most damage uncertainty did to me was my ability to dream freely. Dreams became the graveyard of my wishes. It contributed to my depression in the past, but each time I beat depression, my focus shifted to the present and not the future. This is how I mastered the art of letting go.This is how I created a vaccine for this ever-existing pandemic.  By Cosette Awad https://www.instagram.com/cosetteawad.author/   https://www.instagram.com/executivewomen_ https://www.facebook.com/ExecutiveWomen