The Unknown Future

 (Photo by me, poem by Nazim Hikmet Ran)

I first heard this poem in the Korean Drama Cheongdam-dong Alice. I remember going back to it a few times, really thinking about each line, and how the poem explains the future. This was a reoccurring theme once I started playing Final Fantasy XIII 2 and Lighting reflected on fear of the future and how human it was. Fear is often related to the unknown, and the future is typically unknown. Life has a constant element of change. People change. Places change. And the way you perceive the world changes with each new experience in life.  Change can be unpredictable, but there are times when you can see it coming. This doesn't always prepare you for the future, but it does make you aware of how easy life can change.
This is why people fear the future. It is unknown, and there's no way to know who you will be, or where you will go, because what you think is a constant element in your life is really something temporary that can disappear in the blink of an eye. But the future, like life, is what you make of it. You can be positive or negative about the outcome. This is how you avoid fear of the future, by making choices that you know will cause you to change.
Everyone goes through this at one, or many times in life. People around them change, and some feel left behind while others become more motivated to do something and create a goal to be proud of. Change is a constant, and in some ways, you can always count on things to change, good or bad, no matter what situation you are in.
Lighting says this best. She explains that people cling to the past for many different reasons, but mostly, they want to avoid the uncertainty of the future.