"Don't listen to them when they say you're just a fool, just a foo to believe you can change the world. Oh the smallest thing can make all the difference. Love is alive. Don't you listen to them when they say. You're just a fool, just a fool, to believe you can change the world."
870 million people do
not have enough to eat — more than the populations of USA and the European
Union combined. 50 percent of pregnant women in developing countries lack
proper maternal care, resulting in over 300,000 maternal deaths annually from
childbirth. Every five seconds, a child dies from a hunger-related disease. These are merely some of the statistics
provided by The Hunger Project, and there are many more that are shocking and
heartbreaking. The question here is this: what do you do to help?
People would usually say that they do not have the
capability to stop such tragic happenings around the globe. “I’m not rich.”,
“I’m not a leader.”, “I’m still young.”, “I’m too old.”, people would most
probably reason. At first thought, they may be right. What could an eight-year
old girl do to help? How could a sixteen year old student who does not work yet
extend her hand? In what way could an average person change the world? It may
all seem impossible in the beginning but it is not impossible.
I remember this one time when I was in a jeep on the way
home from school. It was a hot afternoon, and I was sitting near the
entrance/exit door of the vehicle (I do not know what to call it) because that
is my favorite spot. I already paid my fare, and as I stared outside, a small
boy in ragged clothes entered the jeep. He was dirty and he has no slippers on,
and as he walked towards the driver, he gave away envelopes in which “Ate, kuya, pahingi naman ako ng konting
barya pangkain lang po.” is written. I already am used to encountering
children like him, and I tend to give them whatever I have in my pocket. If I
have some coins, I put it inside the envelope. If I don’t, I just give the
empty envelope back to them. After the little boy was done distributing, he
went back to the entrance/exit door and he began singing the chorus of Gitara,
and I cannot help but smile. I love the song and I loved the way he sang it.
His voice was beautiful, and as I looked at the other passengers, my heart
broke because they seem to not be listening to the boy. They were minding their
own businesses. After the boy was done singing, he collected the envelopes.
When he took the one that was with me and realized it has coins, he looked at
me and said “Thank you po.” He
smiled, and his smile is probably the most genuine I have ever seen. I could
see the gratitude that he has through the way his lips curved and through the
way his eyes lit. I could no longer remember what he looked like, but I
remember feeling happy that I dropped some coins inside the envelope. He walked
away of the jeep, and I saw him look back at me. I smiled at him too, a smile
that is my body’s way of telling that he is welcome and that I am more than
happy to have made him smile.
There was also this time when my classmates and I had an
outreach in Nayon ng Kabataan, an orphanage in Mandaluyong. That day was one of
the most unforgettable events in my life. We were there to make more than
thirty children happy for a day. We prepared a program – we sang, we danced, we
had games, we brought food. I had an alaga for a day, a particular orphan I
entertained for the whole day. Her name was Angel and she was eight years old
that time, and my friends were teasing me that she probably was my long lost
sister because we kind of looked alike. We were together for a day, and she
told me her story: she never met either of her parents (she does not even know
their name), she got adopted by an abusive father who hit him, her father was
caught and she was brought back to an orphanage, and at that time somebody was
planning to adopt her again. “Ate, may mag-aampon daw po sa akin. Sana totoo
na. Ang saya ko, gusto ko na magkapamilya.” She told me that, and I could see
how happy she was that she was getting a family. I cannot help but cry when I
heard her tale, because no one deserved a life like that. Angel deserved more.
And when we were about to leave, I gave her a part of me – a rosary I wear
every day, a rosary I do not leave home without. I told her that I will always
be with her in the form of that rosary and that she will never have to be alone
again. She hugged me really tight and she told me to come back. That made me
cry even more, but we had to leave. I hug her back and I silently promise her
that I will be back.
These are the incidents in my life is that I always
remember whenever I hear “Change”. I may
simply be a young girl, I may not be rich and I may not be a superhero, but
with the way the little boy smiled and with the way Angel hugged me back, I
realized that I have the power to reach out. I have the power to make a young
boy smile, to think that I only gave dropped five pesos in that envelope. I
have the power to make a little girl like Angel happy for a day, to think that
I was only a student, to think that all I did was feed her and listen to hear
story and play around with her. I may have done simple things, but these things
transcend boundaries. These things are the things I do for the world.
“The smallest thing can make all the difference. Love is
alive. Don't listen to them when they say you're just a fool, just a fool to believe
you can change the world.” These are the lines that struck me the most. Don’t
ever, ever, EVER think that it is foolish to think that you can change the
world because YOU CAN. All you have
to have is love - be it love for change, love for little children, love for the
elderly, love for the sick, love for the poor, love for the nature, love for the
world – and that love will push you through.
That is what the song is saying – even the change in your
pocket can make such a difference. Give an old woman what is left of your
sandwich, give the little boy the few coins you have in your pocket, donate the
clothes you’ve outgrown, organize a mini-outreach program with your friends. If
somebody sees what you do, they might do it too. And if everybody does one
small thing, it will all add up to amazing things. All these little things have
already changed the world.
The next time somebody asks you if you can change the
world, say yes. Remember Carrie Underwood’s song; remember what the song is
trying to tell you. You’re not a fool to believe you can change the world. I
know I’m not. I know I can change the world as long as I believe I can.
Reference:
Know Your World: Facts About Hunger and Poverty. The Hunger Project. Retrieved from http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/web-page-no-author.aspx
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