Even with the amazing progress technology has made over the years, it seems that society (or at least the current generation) has lost touch with what used to be considered common courtesy and plain, basic knowledge. You can’t walk down the street without someone complaining about something so…inconsequential. People complain when the internet on a cell phone loads too slowly. Wait – think about this for a second – you are getting INTERNET on your CELL PHONE. Can you give a second to get back from space? Twenty years ago this outstanding and incredible concept would have been considered farfetched and outrageous. One thing I want to make known is how people think that the world owes them something. There are worse things in the world than not getting internet on your cell phone. Sometimes people need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Is there a way, I wonder, to live with the incredible advances our society has made technologically, without losing touch with what is so special about living a life of quiet simplicity?
My high school offers its students the opportunity to go on a mission’s trip to Hato Mayor, Dominican Republic for one week the summer between junior and senior year. It is honestly amazing how this one week away can affect a person so much. I grew up in a middle class home in the suburbs, where my parents raised me to always be grateful for what I have. Before going to the Dominican Republic, I understood that there are people living in poverty in third world countries, but never really understood the extent of such poverty until I saw it with my own eyes, and experienced it firsthand. The home of a family of five is about the size of my living room. But more so, what was so touching was how grateful the children in the local villages were – how they’d literally smile from ear to ear because someone cared enough to swing a jump rope, or toss a ball around, or play tag with them. I’d like to make people interested in living in a way the rest of the world seems to have forgotten, to bring back that smile like those children in the villages