Until the End

For centuries, we have been predicting the end of the world. History would tell of empires that have risen and then have crumbled, and pages of time have been painted red by the touch of war. And dark times reveal the cruel nature of men, but we too have found enlightenment. And we still wait for the world to end.

Life existed once before our time, and then debris fell from space, wiping the slate clean. And we stumbled into the road of life, eventually making our way here, and still we wonder what lies far off at the end. Would great achievements continue to mold and shape our world, or would tragic events destroy all the good that came before it? Would the fate of our existence lie in the path of comets or meteors, and no matter how hard we struggle to survive, would we find ourselves facing annihilation, leaving this world empty for new life to begin? What would become of us?

Or would we destroy ourselves? So many stories and movies have brought to life our worst fears. Annihilation, epidemic, slavery, war echo throughout Science-Fiction as we face adversaries not yet created, or so we hope. The dawn of AI already rises over the horizon, and death may become no more through the science of cloning. But if we play God, do we rest our fate in our hands, or does it lie with whatever remains out of our control? Will we see our end in our greatest achievement, or will we find survival through the worst scenario? And still we wait for the end.

If death hangs over us, would it keep our humanity alive? Would heroes rise to defeat the villains? Would chaos reign, or would differences finally be set aside? What would our legacy be, if we were gone tomorrow? What would we do with our time left?

Are we the sum of our experiences, or will our definition become the debris scattered behind? When mankind is gone, all that will be left is garbage, and this was said in the movie, Blade Runner. And if life finds a way after we are no more, what pieces of history would remain intact for us to be known? Would the story of our lives rest on a broken cd, faded photographs, shattered artifacts, and paintings on the wall?

And we still wait for the end of the world, but are we so anxious to get there? Or do we hope that the world will keep us as long as it will have us, or have we broken her too soon? What if the oceans were to stop flowing? What if the sun refused to rise? What if storms declared war upon us, and winters grew even fiercer? Would we fall at the hands of nature? Have we already lost control, or is this world living and breathing as we are? And this is just another change to an orb that spins gently along its axis, another age spent in the Milky Way?

There is no telling what lies around the corner or how much time we have left, but there is no need to rush. We have traveled far along the road of life, and still I believe we have much further to go. And great achievements wait to be born, but with every turn of time, tragedy will never fall behind. Until the day, where differences can finally be put to rest will we remain torn apart, and point of view will clash with those with alternate views. And until the day, where the guns fall silent will war wage on, and lives would be lost. And we march out into the unknown with life in hand, and we struggle to know ourselves. We try to find destiny, but as we take hold of this world, we still wonder that burning question. When will the world end?

The end of us will always be the unanswered question, but the sum of who we are echoes beautifully through the heart and soul of Linkin Park, "I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end, it doesn't even matter. I had to fall to lose it all, but in the end, it doesn't even matter."