Throughout this week I spent many intriguing moments asking this question to friends and strangers. I have to be honest, the common theme of answers that I received caught me quite off guard. There seemed to be, generally, two different responses.
One of the first people I asked this question to was my roommate. She continued eating, un-phased by my question, and said: "I smiled today." I sat, waiting for her to go into more deep-overthought detail but she never did. In actuality, this is how most the people I spoke with felt about this question. They embraced the idea that it is the small that creates the big; you change the world by changing the little parts of it. You change the world through changing the people you're around. My sister said it like this: "I did not change the world today but I changed a world today." To be completely honest, this is a concept that is hard for me to grasp. I always want to do things big, and then still do them bigger and bigger. So to embrace the little moments that create the big moments is a struggle for me, but I do agree. We can change the world as far as our arms can reach but if all of our arms are reaching then the effects are seemingly endless.
Then, still, there was a whole different point of view. "I don't think I'm even capable of changing the world" were the honest words of an overachieving, black, high school guy. For the most part, if people didn't have hope in changing the world through the small things then they pretty much had no hope at all. Which I cannot blame anyone for thinking. When you look at the whole world and ask if you can change it then it does seem impossible and maybe it is even impossible. But what would you say about changing the world through all the smaller worlds that a make it up?
A very intelligent little boy says it in a way that sounds to be exactly how we all should be thinking.
The question for this week: What are you waiting for?
