SmashedLife

Another Sunset, Another Tree/Joaobambu/Flickr

I stared into the masses moving along through out their day. They looked like little ants moving from one place to another. I was just one of these ants like everyone else. No different from the next person except for one special gift.

It was a curse and a blessing at the same time. I didn’t fit in this world.

Every little part of me wanted to scream at the top of my lungs but it seemed like the weight of the world was crushing me. Every day seemed worst than the last. It seemed like such a long time ago when I was truly happy.

I tried to think back to my past but it was just a blur. The thousands of other images floating through my head were becoming a distraction. Most days, I could easily ignore them but today was different.

In my mind, I could see her approaching. She was getting closer and closer. There was a certain aura around her. The wind flowed through her raven black hair like a musical dance. Her fair skin and green eyes contrasted against her dark hair like I have never seen before.

She was different. She was beautiful.

Who was this girl?

Homeless in Aden/NYGUS/Flickr

As our economy continues to plunge and unemployment continues to rise, this has led to some troubling times for the many Americans. This has affected our children and has generated a growing number of children who are sleeping in shelters, motels, vans, etc.

This is unfortunately no way any child should grow up. Without the safety of a place to call home, many of these children are scared, stressed or embarrassed among their peers. Many of them hide their situation from their friends and long for what they used to call home. Children who are homeless are more likely to perform worst the others the children of their age in the education environment.

On the positive side, schools are stepping up in helping the next generation of leaders in providing tutoring, breakfast, lunch, showers, etc. This is often the first safety net for struggling families.

The federal government spends about $64 million a year to help homeless students and the stimulus package should give a boost in funding. Even with this funding and bleak economic forecast, we should not forget that it only takes a few hours a week to make an entire difference with a child.

Mosaic That Describes Me/Mastergongfu/Flickr

About a month ago, I was asked what makes me, me. This is actually kind of an odd question when I started to think about it. The first question in my head was what defines me. The second question that followed the first question very quickly was how do I answer the first question. I could probably list off a bunch of adjectives but does that really makes me, me? That is a question, even now; I am not sure what the answer would be.

It isn’t that I don’t know who I am but there are so many things that I would want to include in a question like this. It is pretty hard to define yourself in a paragraph, let only in a real conversation and not go on and on. So instead, I have decided to try to define myself with using only five words. While these words may change over time but as of today, they are who I am in five words.

• Romantic
• Dreamer
• Logical
• Adventurous
• Generous

That is the me of today. How would you define yourself if you only had five words?

Charity:water

There is a global crisis going on that many of us do not know about. Over 3.575 million people die each year from this crisis. At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from disease caused from this crisis. Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a disease caused by this epidemic which equals out to be roughly 2.1 million children a year. These are only a few of the facts that come from our global water crisis. There are many more like these ones and these numbers are growing by the day.

As a person who never had to worry about where they would get clean water, it breaks my heart to think about how many people have to worry about this sort of thing. Only 62% of the world’s population has access to improved sanitation of water. Improved sanitation is defined as a sanitation facility that ensures hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact. That is roughly 2.5 billing people who do not have access to improved sanitation which 1.2 billion people don’t have any facilities at all. Think if you were part of the 2.5 billion people, would you be willing to drink water that you knew that was contaminated? Without food, a person could live up for a few weeks but without water; you could only survive for a few days.

Last week, I was able to participate in something special. In over 175 cities across the world, Twitter users came together to help raise awareness and funding for charity:water. Charity:water is a non-profit organization that brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. The goal of that one night was to raise over a million dollars to fund well projects around the world. It is extraordinary what can happen when individuals come together to help each other out.

In a war that is claiming more live than any war with guns, it isn’t too late to fight back and help the cause. You can still donate and help fight this global crisis.

Aaron Nace/Rosie Hardy/Flickr

Valentine’s day is one of those days that people either love or hate the day. May it be trying to find the right romantic gift or not having a date at all or having to throw up because of all the sappiness going on, it is hard not to have an opinion on this romantic commercialized holiday.

To me, whither I have a date or not, it is a day I love. It lets you show your love ones that you care about them. Don’t take me wrong here, there doesn’t need to a special day to be called out for me to show how much I can love someone. It should be shown everyday but by calling out a day, you can specialize that day in your heart. It is kind of like a birthday or an anniversary, these days are arbitrary. They are solely based on one’s own decision to celebrate these days or not.

It might be because I am a romantic at heart that this day interests me. Stories like Aaron Nace and Rosie Hardy Flickr love story appeals to me because of the emotional draw it has on you. Two people separated by an ocean meeting on the photo sharing site Flickr pulled together by the common interest of photography. It is kind of a love story that you really only see if movies but throughout the world, things like this happen daily.

So I urge you to reach out and show your love ones that you care on this day. Take action in your life, you never know what will happen.