Amy
resilientreflectiveresplendent
Ever hear the saying "With great power comes great responsibility"? I'm sure that you have. It's something teachers and adults love to preach at kids, and it's plastered all over the media, even in those dorky T.V. shows that Dan always watches. Only someone living in a hole all their life could have missed hearing it at least once. Okay, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but still, if my ignorant little brother, Dan, has heard it, then I'd assume that anyone with half of a brain has, too.
But what does that quote really mean? I mean, everyone's heard it, but do they ever take the time to think about how it relates to them, how it impacts their own life? That, I think, is the funny thing. Most people just see the surface of it – it's simply another saying, maybe a few words of wisdom, but it will never apply to them. I know how it is. I once felt like that, too.
Back when my life was "normal," if it ever really was, the word "power" was synonymous with people like the President or the Queen. But Amy Cahill and power? Those two words had about as much in common as potato salad and cauliflower. Well, maybe that's not the best example, but still, those two don't mix. Ever.
Anyway, I think that most people feel a lot like I did. To any normal teenager, power is convincing their parents to let them have a later curfew or being allowed to drive their car. For me, though, it was a matter of world domination. And that was the scary thing.
A fourteen-year-old and her eleven-year-old brother chasing after the secret of world power isn't normal. Throughout the whole thing, when we were being chased and hunted down, nearly being killed more times than I could count, I was scared. The danger of the chase itself, though, wasn't the only problem. Winning the Clue hunt seemed a long-shot at best, but during those few times when the idea of winning didn't seem quite so far-fetched, I wondered what I would actually do with such power. I mean, can you see me, the girl who can't even function in front of a crowd, ruling the world?
And there was another fear. I didn't want to let it out, let it be known, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get rid of it. If I was to be the most powerful, or one of the most powerful, people on Earth, what kind of responsibilities would be placed on my shoulders? What if I made one stupid mistake that wiped out half of the Earth's population? Yes, I know, Dan would be calling me a worry wart right now. Then again, he'd probably just say that I'm covered in warts. Oh, the joys of having a younger brother.
Really, though, any decision that someone in power makes affects so many people! You can use your power for good, like Benjamin Franklin, and help change the world, or you can use it for evil, like Adolph Hitler, and ruin millions of lives. Even then, deciding to do the right thing and following through on it isn't always so easy. There are so many people that started out with good intentions who ended up becoming corrupted along the way. I didn't want to become one of those people never satisfied with what they have, always lusting after power. I didn't want to become someone like Napoleon Bonaparte. Or Isabel Kabra.
Already, Dan and I have been forced to make multiple decisions about what power means to us, how we are going to allow it to affect our lives. At one point, my brother even had the ingredient list to the ultimate source of power in his pant pocket! Life has somewhat returned to normal, but I know that it won't stay this way for much longer. I can sense that in the not-so-distant future we will be forced to make more unbearable decisions, ones that could determine the fate of the world – again. No teenager should have that kind of pressure. Sometimes, when the stress of it all comes crashing down on me, I wish that things could return back to the way that they were before the Clue hunt, but yet, I know that could never possibly happen.
Honestly, I believe that power is the greatest burden that could ever be placed on a person's shoulders.
XoXoX
