12 February 2011

reevaluating yourself

I hope everyone had a lovely day! I did.
Well since I'm really tired, I will try to make this short. Today we went to Davidson College for a tour and some information sessions because it was a whole day dedicated to juniors who were interested in applying there. It was actually a lot of fun!
We went on a tour and then we had lunch there and after we could go to a lecture/information session about an academic concentration we were interested in. I went to the science one, and I thought they would talk about sciences at Davidson and what types of classes you could take. But instead, one of the former heads of the biology department gave a presentation about the growing pandemic of AIDS in Africa, particularly a village in Zambia, where this professor takes 9 students each summer. These students try to educate the people there about AIDS, and they have them tested and analyze their test results. It's one way at Davidson where you can use biology to help people.
They go for a month, and they stay in a modest but nice house. She said many of the students had a difficult time living in their nice home and seeing what the people in the village live in. Because even though they are not staying at the Ritz-Carlton, they are living in something much nicer. And when the month is over, these students get to come home and back to their close to perfect lifestyle. The villagers do not. They often do not have a future that will take them beyond the village.
And even when I left that lecture hall, I came back to the pool on the 18th floor of this hotel. To a view that many are not privileged to see, and to a safe and happy environment. That's even better than most people who live in million dollar homes.
Yet this morning I was complaining about the breakfast in the hotel. Like that was a huge problem.
It's hard to realize the disparities in resources, quality of life, etc., until you really see it. I only saw some pictures. Imagine if I went there. What would I feel then? How could I accept my life after that?
It's not that you should feel bad for having the things you have. You do not need to give them away. But you should just be happy with your things and realize that you are just lucky. Even though everyone around us seems rich, we are just a lot of lucky people concentrated in one area.

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