Manual Focus: Choose love instead of hate

With the election coming up, my focus for this piece was naturally going to be an extension of my last edition of this column: using empathy to solve political polarization. But I scratched it and whatever I started to write when I received the tragic news that my Dadi (grandmother in Urdu) had passed away in her sleep.

When this article comes out, it’ll have been four complete days. Four long days. 

But she’s in a better place now. Though she’s gone, she will never really leave me. Forever embedded in my heart, I’ll love and cherish our memories together until the end of time. Time truly does not wait for any man, but what we do with our time here remains in our control. 

So — choose love instead of hate. 

This is not necessarily a soft skill, but nevertheless a tool overlooked by many in times of fear and during trials and tribulations. Love conquers all, and I fundamentally believe that. So did my Dadi. In a world that almost ushers a need to be hateful, choose love and kindness. 

I don’t have much else to say on this matter. I could cite some stats or a study for evidence, but I say all of this from a heart currently healing from heartache. But writing is an escape, cathartic in a sense, that allows me to share what I feel. Excuse this mess of a stream of consciousness, but I had to write something down these past couple of days. 

All I know right now and all I really want to say is that love has no bounds. At the end of the day, love is all anyone needs, really — or, at least, all I need. 

My Dadi never got to read any of my work or see any of my pictures, but I hope that she’s proud of me regardless. This one’s for her. 

I love you, Dadi. 

Aisha Patel is a sophomore writing about soft skills in relation to current events. She is also co-chief copy editor of the Daily Trojan. Her column, “Manual Focus,” ran every other Tuesday.