One Piece of Trash

 

I often find myself picking up trash when walking on the street.

 

“Graham, why did you pick up that trash? Where are you going to put it?”

“Well, if I don’t pick it up, then who will?” is usually my go-to response. But on the rare occasion, I might get told,

“You should’ve left it there, someone else would’ve picked it up eventually.”

See, that’s what’s wrong with how we approach problems. Real problems. Problems that matter. We shouldn’t expect the NEXT guy to do something.

If we were to scale the world’s population to 100 people and put them in a lunch line, the fact that you are reading this right now puts you at the front of the line. The next six people behind you will get food from the cafeteria too. The next 43 people will have a smaller selection, until they run out after person #50. The remaining 50 people won’t get any food.

So keep that in mind, that we are the most well-off human beings on the PLANET. We have tremendous power to do something, but we live in our own little world, with our own problems. I’m not saying that your problems aren’t important – I certainly have my share of issues – but I’m saying to take a step back and look at the big picture every once in a while.

I say this because I’m 18 years old, and I’m already tired of how the world is run. Fighting, fighting, fighting. Oppression, discrimination, poverty. I’m 18 years old and I can already see that the world has so much potential to be a better place. We can all see that. But here’s the thing: I’m tired of talking about it. I need to do something.

But before we try to change the world, we have to start smaller.

You can’t try to ride a horse if you don’t know how to get on.

So start in your community. Volunteer at shelters, donate to a food bank, give the man on the corner some change. I need to do this more myself. Last year, I felt very involved with the community through all of my school affiliations. But this year, so far, I’ve hardly done anything. And I want to change that. I NEED to change that. I don’t want to be passive anymore. I want to turn on the news and not see the fighting or the discrimination or the government that kills their own citizens. I want to see change.

Starting with one piece of trash.