Sarah Shoulak

When we think about important people in this world, we think about people who made a difference. People who spent their lives trying to make this crazy world a better place. They weren’t necessarily trying to define it. They weren’t trying to solve every problem, but they took one thing they were incredibly passionate about and they ran with it as far as it would take them. Martin Luther Kind Jr. wasn’t trying to put a man on the moon and Gandhi wasn’t building flying machines at Kitty Hawk. Every person in this world who has made a significant difference had a fire in themselves that fueled their beautifully individual skill sets.

The amazing, life changing gifts we have received from these people do not come without a price, however. When we see these people rise about the status quo and question the current state of affairs, we also see them ridiculed. We see them demonized. We see them killed. Whether they are taken by assassination or a cancer spread too soon, the key phrase is they are taken too soon. We do not ever truly see the affect these strains cause in our heroes. They are all too eager to put on a strong face and address the crowd. We never see their true pain. We never feel their full burden. Every one of them has taken on the pains and sufferings of their people in order to help future generations somehow have it better.

Future generations. I guess that would be me. I feel guilty at times that I am not in the Peace Corps, or picketing signs for causes I believe in. I feel that all of the activists who laid down their lives for me to live the way I do deserve a little more. When we’re young, if we grow up in healthy, positive households, we are told that we can do anything, we can be anything, and we can achieve anything we set our minds to. See, unlike Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, these are ideals we aren’t supposed to grow out of. Somewhere along the lines we lose sight of our potential. We start making excuses for life. “It’s too hard, it takes too long, it costs too much, it’ll never work, I could never do that.”

 But in our hearts we feel that void. We know that we’re not doing exactly what we love at that moment. That’s when we start listening to those cheesy motivational quotes people love to say at commencement speeches. In one such commencement speech, the late Steve Jobs addressed the 2005 Stanford graduating class and said it best.

            “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

It’s not always that easy, I’d like to reply. Sometimes, you have the best of intentions but you still know that you are not measuring up to the level you want to be. How do you do it? How do you change the world? I recycle, I use recycled paper. Do I need to sponsor a foreign child? I have college and bills. How do I just throw open the doors and change the world? The point is that it takes time. Revolution is a process and no matter what change you choose to support, it will be a revolution and it will take time. Making a declaration tomorrow against sex trafficking will not stop it, but it will be one more voice calling to those who need to hear the truth. These revolutions can take place on as small of scale as your own life and as large of scale as the entire world. There is unlimited potential for those who feel they can make a difference. It will not be easy, but it will be worth it.

It seems, though that history has it out for the good guy. Growing up, we see TV shows and movies about the triumph of good over evil. Now, how often do we see that in the news? In the extreme cases, look at how long it took to get rid of Adolph Hitler as opposed to how long it took before Robert F. Kennedy was killed. All throughout history, you see people taking out the Abraham Lincolns, the Martin Luther King Jr.s, the Joan of Arcs. We know there are challenges and hard times ahead of us, but we do not care. As Steve Jobs said, we are doing great work, so we mustn’t stop short.

When I was fifteen years old, I was in an ATV accident that threw me from my vehicle and broke my back in four places. I had no outer scrapes and healed in three months, without a brace. I felt the confident in the value of my life and what it meant to those around me, but I didn’t feel much change about my life’s mission. More recently, I was in a dramatic car accident that totaled my mother’s car on the driver’s side. I had fallen asleep at the wheel with the cruise control going 55 miles per hour and ended up in a ditch. I awoke when the side air bag hit me in the face. I pulled the still-moving car up and parked it on the road. Again, I had no outer scrapes and maybe a little whiplash. There is a reason I am here. There is a reason you are here and there is a reason you are here. Not all of our reasons are going to be dramatic and earth shaking. Some may be small events or paradigm shifts that may go unnoticed for years.

I was sitting at my desk the other day, putting together a “Dream Book” full of pictures from online or magazines that illustrated what I wanted to be, do, and achieve in my lifetime. As I was taping pictures of yoga next to the Eiffel Tower, I received a text message from my father. It read, “On his first day with the Green Bay Packers, new coach Vince Lombardi told his coaches and players, Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well that we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it because in the process we will catch excellence…” In response, my father and I began talking about Robert F. Kennedy and the amazing quotes he shared like, “There are those that look at the way things are and ask why? I dream of things that never were and ask why not?” I mentioned that these inspirational people were taken from this world too soon to which my father replied, “what a different world it would be.” The final text message I sent him was, “Well I’m still here and there’s still work to be done.”

For the first time, I saw myself as a do-er, a go-getter, a person that actually makes a difference. For so long I associated activism and volunteerism with “those activist-volunteer people over there” because I had no idea how to involve myself. Well, I did that night, and I would like to challenge each one of you to do the same. All you have to do is admit it to yourself. If you honestly believe it in your heart and soul, then the world will see it. So many times people try to convince the world first, but don’t believe it themselves and they are accused of being fake or mocking the causes. However, you know those people you’ve seen who are bursting with excitement to tell you about their newest job or experience or art project. These people are oozing with energy all over the place. They don’t need a billboard saying, “Hey, world, I love doing this.” You SEE it in them. What are you doing to make sure the world sees your vision, or consequentially, what do you really embody for the world to see? Take this moment. Define your passion. Achieve your vision.