such waste

Such waste. I am amazed how much time/money/emotions/etc are wasted. For the last two days, I have sat behind these two high school girls in Environmental Science, and because the classroom is so small the tables are really condensed—which means that if you are sitting behind two people talking you’re going to hear every single word they say whether you wanted to or not. So why do they annoy me? All they have talked about for the last two days is how much of a retard this one dude they know is, how one of them would never and should never go out with this other guy, the best ways to embarrass other girls who don’t fit in very well at proms, how to make guys think you like them, how to deal with older brother’s girlfriends, and complain about younger sisters who hog the bathroom at 7:15 in the morning. You can classify this as a rant if you wish, but just to clear up a bias that might be appearing—public schoolers aren’t the only ones who talk on and on about meaningless things. I’ve been around both groups quite a lot, and their conversation topics are just as insipid. No, the homeschooled “Christian” kids don’t scheme out how to tear down other people at proms but they know all about the latest PG-13 rated movies and can talk on (excuse me, giggle) about I have no idea what. I want to write here that I’m not trying to point fingers at anyone and I don’t want anyone’s feelings to be hurt, but seriously, I don’t think I really care because trying not to offend people in this issue is unavoidable when such worthless conversations make me sick. (What happened to the Rebelution craze? It came, and the Harris boys were so “cute” and they had such a motivating message, and then life went on and no one mentions it anymore). For added effect, I waste a lot of time myself. I can spend hours surfing the web when I could be studying for school or for personal enrichment. As I surf there is this book on the college library shelf called Satanism Today that is just screaming for my attention, I’ve got Kevin Bales’ Disposable People sitting on my nightstand still marked in the middle of chapter one, I’ve got a plot for a story running around, I could write poetry, I could spend time at Serenity House, I could do a lot of things, and yet I’m still sitting there surfing the web—doing pretty much nothing.Three college kids from California flew to Uganda and made a documentary about the longest war in Africa (23 years and counting); they are now petitioning for people to save Joseph Kony’s 3,000 child soldiers. These child soldiers are children around 7 to 12 years old who are stolen from their parents by Kony’s LRA and turned into adolescent monsters that kill people and if they escape they never forget their captivity. These three guys are trying to change the world, and they are succeeding. There is Jamie T., one of my biggest heroes, who printed t-shirts to pay the bills to get a suicidal friend through rehab and now heads one of the most popular nonprofit organizations (To Write Love on Her Arms) on myspace. These people are being brave and stepping out of their comfort zones with the goals of changing the world (how cliché that has become).It’s true you don’t have to be a saver of the world to make a difference. The smallest choices you make are just as important (if not more). So why don’t we all make the small choice to stop discriminating against people that weren’t raised the same way we were. Why don’t we make the small choice to stop talking about worthless things like crushes on boys/girls and movies based in fantasy of unrealistic adventure and glamorized sex. Why don’t we turn off our sappy love ditties and start talking to our friends about meaningful things like committed relationships, inspirational music (stuff that motivates you to see the difference between who you are and who you could be and how it is and how it should be), and how we can actually live out what we’ve been raised to believe in Sunday school for so many years.And if that means we have to be exposed to the raw reality of the world—so be it, I’d much rather have reality no matter how painful than to having to wallow in fantasy land where everyone walks in with cheery smiles that are the polar opposite of what’s really on the inside. Right now, as I’m finishing this I’m thinking: no one will care, because they never do. Do I even care that much? Will I make the small choices of doing meaningful things tomorrow or will I waste my time? Come on and prove me wrong! I dare you to bring up something controversial with your friends and actually have a quality conversation.