School starts back on Tuesday the fifth after a too-short Christmas break.  I already am dreading the thought of returning to the class room.  Getting up early, studying for tests in every class, stressing out about my future, keeping a tight schedule with no free time... that just isn't my cup of tea, figuratively speaking. 

Guilty for my bitter thoughts, I keep telling myself that there are children all over the world who long to go to school.  And there are children all over the world who get up at three or four in the morning to walk hours in the darkness, through the dangerous streets, to go to a school with no electricity, dirt floors, and a low-standard education.  And yet they are thankful that they have the privilege of going to school. 

When I think of this, I feel guilty that I dislike school.  I try to enjoy it for the sake of the children who don't have the same opportunities that I do.  In a way, I feel like if I make the most of my education, and strive in the best way that I can to make the best of my life, then maybe I can pay it forward and provide a better world for those who never got the same chances as I did.  That's why I started sponsoring a child in Africa with my allowance when I was in my freshman year of high school.  The thought that I could provide another human being, another child, with everything I have that I take for granted (and shouldn't take for granted), was something that I couldn't pass up.  It brought me down to earth just a little bit, and gave me a reality check about how blessed I truly am.  Children are starving to death all over the world, dying of treatable diseases, and not getting even the most meager of educations that could bring them out of their poverty.    

I read somewhere that the United States has the 19th highest literacy rate in the world (which is ridiculous in its own way, because with our resources, we should be at the top of the list) at 99.0 percent, which means that our youth today should not have an issue going to college, furthering our education, and then using our gained skills and knowledge to change our world for the better.  Burkina Faso has a literacy rate of 23.6%.  Mali has a literacy rate of 24.0%.  What are we doing about this?  Obviously, not a whole lot, or this would not be happening by the twenty-first century.

This year, 2010, is a new beginning in many ways.  No matter your age, I challenge you to change the world around you for the better somehow, someway.  Do everything in your available power to make things even remotely better.  Do something that only you could do, or do something that anybody could do, but nobody has ever bothered.  There are so many global issues in the world today, in the United States, in Africa, in Asia, in South America, everywhere.  There is no country on earth without issue.  There are problems.  And yet, wherever you look, in any nation lying under the stars, you will find one common ground.

Apathy. 

As the year of 2010 dawns today on January first, I challenge you to make a difference.  Erase all signs of apathy from your life.  Be that person you thought you could never be. 

In the words of Elvis Presley, "Do something worth remembering."  It sounds so obvious, but how many people have actually done this?

Stand up with me and do your best this year and from now on to make the world a better place.    

Here is a poem that I wrote when I was ten years old.  I think that it shows that I have had a calling to help the needy since I was quite young.  It's poorly written, but I think it has a sweet message.

The Dollar 

A little girl got a dollar for her birthday.

She went out with her mother to spend it.

It was very dark and cold outside,

And the streetlights were brightly lit.

A rabbi at the temple called to her,

"I need that money! Do you know why?

Because my temple must be made bigger!"

But the little girl just passed on by.

A storekeeper selling dresses called to her,

"I need that money! Do you know why?

I have my family to feed, so please buy a dress!"

But the little girl just passed on by.

A homeless child sat on the street, hungry and alone.

"Girl, you need that money.  Do you know why?

So that you can spend it on things to make you happy."

But the little girl didn't pass on by.

What the little girl saw was a humble child,

Who had never had anything new,

So she reached out and gave the money to him.

I would! Wouldn't you?

2004