You won't change the world, but you can change lives

One person can't change the world.  It's too big, too complicated, and there are too many people working against change.

When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would reply "I want to change the world!"  What I meant by this was I wanted to make the world a happier place for the people who live in it.  I wanted to end war and poverty, fight anger and prejudice, and somehow convince everyone that getting along would not be so terrible after all.  The world isn't all sunshine and daises, but why can't it be?  If everyone gets onboard with the idea, well, it's easy.

But everyone isn't onboard with the idea, and they never will be.  There will be war, because people will fight violently for what they want.  There will be poverty because people will be selfish (and because there will always be "more" and "less", and "poverty" is defined as "those with less", but that's a matter of semantics).

People will get angry with each other, people will think they are better, people don't want to get along if it means they can't be right.

Here's the thing.  Before Christ comes again, there will be terrible wars, and natural disasters and pretty much the whole world is going to fall apart and it's going to be awful.  I was thinking one day that if everyone could just be friends, it wouldn't have to be that way.  The world doesn't have to end terribly.  But it will, because of all the things I said in the last couple paragraphs.  There's nothing you or I or any one of us can do about it.

So, you won't change the world.  But you can change lives.

You can help one person feel loved.  You can help a family have a place to live.  You can help a community have clean water.  You can make a landcover classification map for island nations as part of a government and NGO project to track water runoff is coming from, and use that information to manage water to maintain and improve off-shore fishery and coral reef health.  That was an actual class project I participated in last year, and it was one of my favorite projects that I've done, because it was actually useful.  It was helping to make the world a better place.

Geography is my passion, and I can use it very directly to change lives and make the world a better place for the people who live in it.  What's your passion?  Can you use it in any way to change a life? What's one small thing you can do today to make someone's life better tomorrow?

You won't change the world my friend, but you can change lives.