How To Change The World

As people we hold a lot more power than we tend to believe. The prefix “just” is a commonality that we wrongfully share—just a teacher. Just a mom. Just a waitress. Just a person. Just. But we get to be a teacher, a mom, a waitress. We get to be a person.

Imagine the amount of lives you touch every day, and you don’t even realize it because you’re caught up in the “justs”. When you think about it, you get to be a person who changes the lives of everyone around you by simply existing. How much of an impact could you have by intentionally living to make the world better in small ways each day?

My least favorite question is coincidentally the one I get the most: “Why?” It seems simple enough. “Why did you quit your job to work remotely and travel full time?” I don’t travel to see pretty sights or have a constant vacation (although, perks, amiright?!) Truthfully, it sounds a lot more glamorous than it is. I’m gonna be real with you, I poop in a portable toilet I can slide under my bed.

I travel because I get to be a person in this weird little world, and I’ll never know how significant that can be if I stay in my tiny sliver of it, reading National Geographic to quench my wanderlust. Because National Geographic features articles about the “grace and beauty” of Laos but forgets to mention the women who still squat behind a tree in the forest and give birth to their babies alone. Or the fact that there is a cultural belief there that epilepsy is an episode of being overtaken by spirits. You don’t get the full picture unless you live it is my point, I guess. And maybe I won’t change the world by bringing medical advancements to rural Laos, but there could be someone in Charleston who is unimaginably depressed and just needs one person to listen. Or someone on Boca Chica beach who needs to hear a story about recovery to know that it’s possible.

We all get to be people and we all get to decide whether or not we make the world a better place or just keep existing in it. Make it your mission to make eye contact and smile at a stranger (behind a mask of course—smize, people!), or have a vulnerable conversation with someone new. Because you get to.