Fuck the World… But I Still Choose Kindness

 There’s a point in life where you think you’ve seen enough of the world to understand it.

You’ve raised children, held families together, worked hard, paid your dues, and believed—maybe quietly, maybe stubbornly—that people are, at their core, decent. That even when things get hard, we find our way back to kindness.

And yet here I am.

Angry.

Not a passing frustration or a fleeting irritation, but a deep, bone-tired anger that sits heavy in my chest. Because this is not how the world is supposed to be.

Somewhere along the way, it feels like things have tipped. Conversations have turned into arguments. Differences have turned into divisions. And truth… well, truth feels harder and harder to find.

I wake up in the morning and there’s this strange pull—half dread, half compulsion—to turn on the news. To see what’s happened overnight. What’s been said. What’s been done. And too often, it feels like the people who should know better—the ones trusted to lead, to protect, to think beyond themselves—have made decisions that leave the rest of us shaking our heads, or worse, feeling afraid.

Afraid of what’s coming next.
Afraid of how quickly things seem to escalate.
Afraid that we are always just one step away from something bigger, something worse.

It’s exhausting.

And if I’m honest, there are moments I feel like I’m just treading water—trying to stay afloat in a world that feels like it’s spinning faster than I can keep up with. Trying to make sense of what’s real and what’s not. Wondering who to believe. Wondering when everything got so loud, so harsh, so unkind.

Because that’s what hurts the most.

The lack of kindness.

The quickness to judge.
The eagerness to blame.
The way people seem ready to turn on each other over differences that once would have been met with curiosity—or at the very least, respect.

But here’s the thing.

I may be angry. I may be tired. I may be fed up with what I’m seeing and hearing and feeling.

But I will not let it change who I am.

I will not succumb to the hate and the fear.

I will not turn on my neighbours, my friends, or my colleagues because they come from a different place, believe something different, or see the world through a different lens.

I will not feed the misinformation machine by sharing things I haven’t checked, or reacting before I’ve thought.

I will not add to the noise.

Instead…

I will choose kindness—even when it feels like it’s in short supply.
I will listen more than I speak.
I will ask questions instead of making assumptions.
I will stand firm in my values, not loudly or aggressively, but steadily.

I will check in on the people around me.
I will offer a smile, a kind word, a moment of patience—because sometimes that’s what holds the world together more than anything else.

And I will remind myself, and anyone who needs to hear it, that this isn’t all there is.

There is still goodness.
There are still decent people.
There are still quiet acts of care happening every single day that don’t make the headlines.

Maybe that’s where we’ve gone wrong—looking to the loudest voices to define the world, instead of noticing the quieter ones who are still doing the right thing.

I’m a grandmother now. I think about the world my grandchildren are growing up in, and yes—it scares me sometimes.

But it also strengthens my resolve.

Because if there’s one thing I know after all these years, it’s this:

The world doesn’t change all at once.
It changes in small moments.
In everyday choices.
In how we treat the person standing in front of us.

So no—I won’t give in to the fear.

I won’t become hardened or bitter or closed off.

I will keep choosing kindness.
I will keep choosing connection.
I will keep choosing to believe that even in the middle of all this noise and chaos…

We can still be better than this.

Niki Gent is an award winning leader in community services, grandmother, and the founder of Family and Child Consultants. With years of frontline experience, she has seen the best and worst of people—and still chooses to believe in kindness. Known for her no-nonsense approach and heartfelt honesty, Niki writes and speaks to challenge, support, and remind us of what really matters.