The world we live in is a world full of hatred.  It seems as if there is always a war going on or someone at school is getting bullied.  It’s heartbreaking to see that people are purposely killing others or hurting their confidence.  Hatred is a strong thing, but there is one thing stronger than hatred itself.  Love.  Love is the strongest weapon.  Love is the strongest force in this world, yet we often fail to use it.  We see it as a society everywhere.  However, the power of hatred is nothing compared to the power of love.  Hatred conquers some, but love conquers all.

Although The Hunger Games series is fictional, there are numerous lessons we can learn from it.  We can learn that anyone can do something extraordinary for someone else just by showing them an act of love.  Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl from the Seam in District 12 who had to hunt for her family’s survival at the risk of being caught by her totalitarian society, showed her family just how much they meant to her every single day.  She risked her life to put food on the table for her 12 year old sister and her deeply depressed mom.  When her sister was reaped for the 74th annual Hunger Games, she volunteered in her place, meaning almost certain death, so that her sister could live.  The most important lesson we can learn from The Hunger Games is that having something worth living for is special.  But when you have something worth dying for, that’s love.  True love is when you’re willing to die for it.  Finnick Odair died so that his family could live a life without poverty or a death match.  He died because he was willing to do so if it meant a better life for his family.  Love has the ability to kill us, but unlike hatred, it kills us for something or someone we deeply care about, even at our own expense.

In modern society, we see the country of Syria in the middle of a civil war. The leader of Syria abuses their civilians and neglects their basic needs such as food, water, medical care, and happiness.  In Syria, the people rose up and are now fighting back against the Assad regime.  They’re risking their lives every single day so that their children and grandchildren can have a better life than theirs.  It’s really a beautiful thing.  In the midst of a civil war, every single day you see these people who have spouses, children, and siblings, yet they put their lives on the line because they love the cause so much or they love their family so much.  If that isn’t beautiful, I don’t know what is.  These people are willing to die so their children and spouses can live a life of happiness.  It stops and makes me emotional just thinking about the society that I live in where most of the people I go to school with or know outside of school are blessed beyond belief, yet they complain about their lives.  That’s what I despise about this world.  We don’t appreciate what and who we have.  We need to learn to live in harmony and to love each other despite our differences.  In my society, I see a bunch of people who feel like the world owes them something.  It’s sad.  They don’t know what it’s like to truly love.  They haven’t seen the beauty in it.  They may think that love is when you’re willing to live for something you love so much.  But they’re wrong.  Although hatred may be a strong emotion, it doesn’t compare to love.  Love is a beautiful thing.  True love is something I hope that everyone finds some day.  I hope for a society where everyone finds something not worth living for, but worth dying for because they love it so much.