On Hope

I'm an optimist. That's probably one of my most pervasive traits. I never check the weather before going outside, no matter how long I'll be potentially in the rain for. If I'm playing DnD, I always figure I'll probably pass the check when I roll dice, even if it's pretty damn unlikely. When I think of the future, I think that it's going to get better, no matter how much it's trending downwards. In short, I'm someone that's very hopeful. Because after all, what's hope if not optimism for the future?
 
And, maybe I'm just optimistic, but I think that being hopeful is one of the most powerful things you can be. Not to sound too cheesy, but I think when you believe in the future, that's what gives you the energy and ability to keep striving forwards. Or maybe I've just watched too many animes and they've officially rotted my brain. Regardless of the source of my beliefs, I think hope is the most powerful battery you can possibly run on. And for myself, and a lot of you reading this, I think that's something that's going to be necessary to keep going. 
 
Here's the thing. I want to change the world. If you're reading this, you might want to change the world too. I want to create a world where humans and animals are able to love each other in all the ways that two humans or two animals might. And I want that to be accepted. Normal. I don't just want it though. I believe it. With all of my heart, I think we're going to get there one day. I've got hope that it's possible, so long as we keep trying. 
 
I think hope is more than just the big picture stuff. I work hard because I have hope that it'll pay off. I try new things because I have hope that I'm going to find something new I love doing. I have hope that I'm going to make new friends every time I go out and meet new people. I want to engage with the world in so many ways because I believe that anything that I put in I'm going to get out again. To me, that feeling is really the only reason that I do everything. 
 
Maybe it's just me. Honestly, probably it's just me, but I can't even understand how someone would exist outside of hope. Why do anything if you don't have the belief that it's going to lead to something positive? I mean sure, it's not like you have to be excited for another day at the boring 9-5. You don't have to hope that someone walks in and hands you a million dollars during your shift. But why work if you don't have hope that working will get you somewhere, either from the work itself, or from the benefit that that work provides? Sure, you can say that you need to work to make money, to then be able to afford food. But what's the point of having food if you're not sustaining yourself for a brighter future? What's the point of getting out of bed ever if you don't think that something in the world out there is going to make getting out of bed worth it? What's the point of falling in love with an animal that has one tenth your lifespan if you don't think that that love is going to give you more than the inevitable pain is going to take?
 
This idea of hope is at the heart of everything I do when it comes to zoosexual advocacy. As anyone that creates media can tell you, it's a lot of work. This is nearing the 300th article in the magazine, and I'm certainly not claiming to have written all of those, but I've definitely done quite a few. I've put likely hundreds of hours of my life into this project, as well as the other zoo projects on the go. With that time I could have played more video games, learned how to speak a new language, got really into Magic the Gathering, or more realistically, created a whole different project similar to this. Y'know, I've thought for a long time about creating video essays about video games. Something like Jacob Geller. Take a topic, explore the way that topic is presented through a few games I've played, make some kind of poignant statement about some topic. I think I could do it. Not to get too optimistic, but I bet if I really gave it my all, I might be able to really get something out of it. But the reason I don't is because I know that that might make me happy, but I have hope that I can do something bigger. Something even more ambitious. Something that changes the lives of so many other people like me.
 
I sure hope this doesn't make me sound like some kind of narcissist. I get that there's an extreme to all of this. The line between being hopeful and being cocky sometimes just feels like it's down to presentation and optics. When David says to Goliath that he's going to beat him no matter what, he's an underdog fighting against the odds. When Goliath says to David that he's going to win no matter what, he just seems like kind of a knob. If we're being 100% honest, I think that's part of why I'm so eager and ready to throw myself into zoosexual activism. I think there's very few bigger Goliaths to go up against, and as someone who is very hopeful, being able to forever be David means that I get to be less worried about coming across negatively. Even though I think sometimes it's good to be Goliath. To remind yourself that you are not just capable of beating the odds, but of being the one to set them. 
 
Let's get to the point here. I wanted to talk about hope today because I think right now the world we live in is a very scary place. There's a lot of uncertainly. There's a lot of signs that things are going to get worse. There's a lot of just scraping by, and not a lot of things getting better. I know it's not easy, but I hope that all of you out there reading this are able to keep a bit of hope alive in yourselves. The world isn't over, there's so much more to go. 
 
Here's the thing about hope. It's way more than just something to believe in. It's a force. Something that can tangibly affect the world. When you have hope, and you really believe in something, you then have the will to fight for that thing. When you fight for that thing, the world changes. Sure, that could be zoosexuality, or it could be any other thing you dare to hope for. Maybe you're trying to publish a book. If you hope and you believe, you're going to do everything you can to get that book into the hands of publishers no matter what. If you don't hope, chances are you sit around waiting for someone to come and hand you that opportunity. The more hope you have, the more you're going to research opportunities, send emails, attend networking events, and fight to get your book in front of the right kind of people. Say you're trying to go vegan. Step one, before anything else, is believing that you have the ability to do it. You need to know that it's something you're actually able to do. If you don't believe you can, you're not going to have the willpower and energy to actually stick to your beliefs, and make it happen. Anyone can go vegan at any time, most people don't, because they don't have enough hope that they could actually do it, or that it would actually make a difference in the long run.
 
But that's another cool part about hope. It's not something that's self contained. It's contagious. Say you want to go vegan, but you don't believe you can, and you don't believe that it'll really change anything. And then, you find out that your best friend is also going vegan at the same time. And they're relentless. They believe in themselves. Suddenly, the goal doesn't seem as impossible for you. You can believe in something better together, and that makes it all the more doable.
 
This is how I feel about the zoo community. I'll be honest, sometimes even I feel exhausted. Like we're just spinning our wheels. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth all the time I put into running the magazine, or staying active on social media, or pushing to change things. Sometimes I think about the millions of other versions of me that spent all this time doing other things that could have made me more friends, more money, more status. More of the things that everyone wants. And then ZooTT puts out another episode. Or I see a tweet from someone about their zoo experiences, or someone messages me saying they wrote an article and they want to share their thoughts. And it reminds me that we're all here fighting together. Hoping together. The hopes of one person are powerful, but the hopes of a community, all standing together trying to achieve the same goal? That's unstoppable. 
 
If you're someone out there reading this, and you're struggling, you don't have the energy to keep going, I hope you can find something to believe in. Just one thing is all you need. Whether that's hoping for your own future, for the future of a cause, or for the future of everyone. When you have something you're hoping for, it makes the world a better place. I hope you can find other people that believe in the same thing that you do, and I hope that you can do something amazing. Let your hope become the thing that keeps you going. Use your hope to change the world. 
 
At least, that's what I'm trying to do anyway. I hope I can. If nothing else, I'm optimistic. 
 
 
 
 
 

Article written by Tarro (April 2025)

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