Remember the time you were sick and you went to the doctors to get medicine to help yourself get better? You couldn’t pay for it yourself. People took care of you. Someone payed for you to get better.  How come we can help ourselves, but cannot help other sick people in the community who do not have enough money to get better?  Everyone deserves to be cared and loved for regardless of their money situation, everyone deserves to be treated equally. There are sick people who do not have money to get better and are shunned away from society because of their living conditions. People should treat and love everyone, sick or poor, just as if they were they part of their own family. Treat everyone fairly to please yourself and to please God.
   

I am Mother Teresa, and I won this award due to my kind actions towards the poor and sick.  At a young age of 18,  I decided to become a nun. I made my First Profession of Vows and was assigned to Saint Mary’s High School to teach girls. However, on September 10, 1946, I was sitting on a train heading to Calcutta. Jesus Christ spoke to me and told me to stop teaching. He wanted me to work in the slums of Calcutta helping the city’s poorest and sickest people. My goal in Calcutta was to help “‘the unwanted, the unloved and the uncared for’” (Biography Editors). I established a small school and a home for the dying after persuading government to donate to my cause. My duty to care for those in need began to spread around the world with my congregation “Missionaries of Charity” which had purpose to “love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after” (Mother Teresa - Biographical).  My goal was not to care for the needy by leaving them with food and clothing. Yes, you can get rid of that hunger, you give them some warmth. This is not what they really want. The poor who feels “shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society that poverty is so hurtable...” (Mother Teresa).  Hunger leaves a person with an empty stomach, but when a person does not feel love, they start to feel empty at their heart, and that emptiness ends up eating up more and more of their spirit everyday. For a person who is sick without good spirit, how can they get hope to get better if their hope is no longer there? Hope could start with you beginning to love. A sick person once told me “they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten” (Mother Teresa). The poor, the sick and the dying are human beings like us. They have every right to be apart of our society, but they are pushed away. Why would they want to get better if they are forgotten about and no one is there to take care of them? It can start with you opening your heart, and when you see a person who may be homeless, smile at them. Ask them how they are doing. Show a little love.
   

Love. It could start with a simple smile. While working with the sick, I met one particular lady, who was absolutely in the worst condition possible. I took her to her bed. She smiled, said thank you, and died. She died yet with a smile on her face. She smiled because she was happy she felt loved. There is really not a lot to “cure the sick or ease the pain.. It was not ‘things’ my patients needed; they needed to feel wanted, and die at peace with God”(Mother Teresa). Love begins at home. If you can claim you love God, who you do not talk to, God who you cannot see, then you should love those people around you, because you can talk to face to face. I am talking to you young people who have so much life ahead of them, “I want you to find poor here, right in your own home. And begin love there” (Mother Teresa).  Love your family, care for them unconditionally, be nice to your neighbors, say hello to them once in awhile. Little by little your heart opens up more, and you’ll be able to love everyone regardless of their living situation, just like how you would love your own family. Whether or not a person may be sick, or have less money than you, treat them just like you treat your family. Love individuals equally.
   

What is the point in doing good? It is not to please people around you. It is to please yourself and God. God wants you to do good for everyone around you, no matter the person’s living conditions.  Helping out the sick and the poor could include you doing something so small, like giving love you give to everyone, and make someone beyond happy. You get to experience the same joy as the person you share with. Isn’t it a wonderful feeling when you can put a smile on someone’s face? In a children’s hospital, I have a poem on the wall, called Anyway, and my favorite line is “The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; / Do good anyway” (Kent). People around you may not recognize the goodness you share with them, but again you aren’t trying to please them. That shouldn’t stop you from loving and caring for everyone around you, because you are treating everyone like how God wants you to, equally. The poem also says, “You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; / It was never between you and them anyway” (Kent). Do good for yourself. Do good for God.
   

September 5, 1997, at the age of 87, I moved on to forever be with God in heaven. My work still continues with  “Missionaries of Charity”. My helping spirit stays in the world,  for a woman who prayed to me was “cured of a stomach tumor… [and] declared a miracle” (Ralph Ellis and Livia Borghese). Even though I have passed on, I wish for you young people to do good for God who wants you to love everyone equally and not to exclude people based on their living or money situation. Everyone has the right to be loved and cared for.

Works Cited
Biography Editors. "Mother Teresa." Biography, A&E Television Networks, 6 Sep. 2017. Accessed 17 Mar. 2017. When Mother Teresa was a little girl, she was in a devout Catholic family. At a young age, her father became sick and died, and Mother Teresa became close to her mother. Her mother made her commit to charity, and open the house to the city. Mother Teresa became a nun and taught at a school for the poorest girls. However, Mother Teresa got a call to abandon her work, and work with the sickest and poorest people. This source comes from a reliable website that is dedicated to writing biographies of people. This source also provides a background of why Mother Teresa was so generous, which answers one of my questions. I will include this article in my writing to explain what influenced her to devote herself to the sick and poor.

Ellis, Ralph, and Livia Borghese. "Mother Teresa to Be Declared a Saint September 4." CNN, 31 Aug. 2016. CNN Accessed 27 Mar. 2017. Mother Teresa was canonized as a saint September 4, which is the anniversary of her death. A woman was cured from a tumor in her stomach with no scientific explanation as to how. However, the woman prayed to Mother Teresa and a miracle happened. Pope John Paul II waited five years after her death to take on the action of making Mother Teresa a saint. CNN can be biased at times, however there were no opinions involved in this article so it is reliable. This article also answered my question as to why Mother Teresa became a saint. I will make sure to explain Mother Teresa's dedication to the sick and poor even after her death.
Keith, Kent M. "Mother Teresa's Anyway Poem." Dbooth.org, 8 May 2002,  Accessed 22 Mar. 2017. On Mother Teresa's wall in a children's home, there is a poem that became known as "Mother Teresa's Anyway Poem". The poem says that people will judge another when good things happen to that person, or a person does a good thing. However, while another person may try to knock them down, it is important to forget about them and do the best you can anyway. The main idea of the poem is to do good to please God, not to please others. This source was very helpful, because it states the poem was in a children's hospital which reveals she taught the kids to do good for themselves and God. The poem shows Mother Teresa's core values, which is very useful to understand why she was such a good person.

"Mother Teresa." The Economist, 17 Sept. 1997. Religion and Philosophy Collection. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017. Mother Teresa was not concerned about money, but saw Christ in everything. Whether or not she could help cure the sick, she helped them knowing that what a person truly wanted was to be cared for and feel wanted. Prior to being a saint, people believed she should have been a saint. These characteristics include her selflessness and devotion to a higher cause. This article is useful because people believed Mother Teresa was a saint before she was even declared to be one. In my writing I will include the qualities of being a saint, and show how Mother Teresa qualified.

Mother Teresa. "Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech." 11 Dec. 1979, Oslo, Norway. Speech. Mother Teresa says a lot in her speech, but mostly promotes peace and love. Mother Teresa states that God has created this world to love and bring about peace towards one another. He loves the world so much, He gave the world His son, but in a world without evil. Christ died for everyone equally, and not just the rich. Mother Teresa promotes love and equality for the poor. When the poor are given food, they are not only happy they are being fed, but they are joyful because they feel loved and wanted. A person who is not cared for or wanted because they are sick or poor is shut out from society, which causes them to hurt, but by sharing with them and making them part of society, they feel joyful. Mother Teresa believes that a person needs to understand love to bring peace and be able to bring good news to the poor. This source is very reliable because these are the words of Mother Teresa. I will make sure to include in my writing that peace starts from love, and love starts in the home if people let God into their heart. I need to make sure I promote the ideas of love and peace just as much as Mother Teresa did.
"Mother Teresa - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 27 Mar 2017. Mother Teresa felt a call from God and felt like it was her mission to spread love of God. She left school to dedicate herself to helping the poor. Her work spread all over the world, and the Society of Missionaries undertakes relief works of all natural disasters. As a result Mother Teresa has been recognized for her helpfulness and kind deeds towards the poor and unfortunate. The Nobel Peace Prize website explains why Mother Teresa deserved such an honorable award by giving examples of the good work she has done. It is also helpful because it stated other peaceful awards Mother Teresa had received. In my writing, I will make sure to encourage the importance love and peace