Every-body's got their problems.
Classes, jobs and trivial things in life we dwell upon, like where to eat. For most Penn State students, these are the most pressing matters we face.
For the children living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), classes would be a luxury. How many times have you complained about studying? Grumbled at the thought of spending hours doing a "pointless" assignment? Tell that to these children, 40 percent of whom don't even attend school.
Many of us work part time jobs to support ourselves, make enough money to eat and attend college. The kids are in a similar predicament. They spend their days farming Columbite-tantalite, or coltan for short, so we can use our precious cell phones. And they're working not for their well being, but for the luxury of having just one meal each day.
Come tomorrow night, many of us will be stumbling along College and Beaver avenues in a drunken stupor. We will be oblivious to the concerns of the week and with no worry in the world except where to go for go late-night drunken meal.
These children probably don't know or care what day it is. They're either fighting a war they have no business being in, or they are defending themselves from sexual assault.
One out of every three girls and women in DRC have been sexually assaulted. This isn't like the time that creepy guy groped you at a crowded apartment party. This is being held at gunpoint at the age of 10.
Yet we still continue to live our lives as Americans, completely unaware and uncaring of what happens halfway around the world? Who cares about kids over there? As long as we get 4.0s this semester, we get to drink on Thursdays, indulge ourselves at Wendy's, and pick fights with the guys who cut in front of us at Canyon Pizza.
We don't see them doing manual labor so that we can use our cell phones, and so that they can eat that one meal a day. We don't see the faces of young women and children assaulted at gunpoint. We don't see kids who would die for the chance to go to school. To not worry about being shot.
We can at least try to live our lives better; we can live our lives with more appreciation for the fact that that we have the opportunity to go to school. We've never known the feeling of starvation and probably never will. And our sisters and girlfriends don't have to worry about being assaulted at gunpoint.
All I'm asking is that we live our lives as better people. Be glad you get to attend classes for which you have to study. Appreciate the food you have, and never forget there are others who don't eat a fraction of the food to which we have access. Treat each other with respect; being cut off at Canyon is terrible but it's obviously not the worst thing in the world.
You can thank God or whatever it is that you believe creates life, for your birth as an American. A roll of the dice could have just as easily solidified your fate as one of these children. Instead of preschool and snack time, you would have a day of mining and a sparse meal. Instead of coming home to a warm house with you mother and a TV, you'd be lucky to even have your parents still alive.
We don't need to be activists who are ready to pack up our lives and travel across the globe for a righteous cause wherever there may be one. We don't have to donate our time and money to organizations that are striving to change things. We don't even have to pretend that we care, because frankly many of us don't (although we should).
What we can do is acknowledge there are problems in this world bigger than simply not getting tickets to the Ohio State game. As long as we know that problems worse than our own exist, we are already doing a lot.
There are many who suffer around the world, not just children in DRC. It would not only be idealistic but also unrealistic to fix these problems overnight. All I ask is that you keep these truths in mind, anything else you would like to do beyond that is peaches.
