Wisdom From a 23 Year Old

We all exist, day by day, with the hope that someday we will become great. Whether we expect that greatness to be world-wide, community-wide, or simply family-wide is completely up to the individual. But, in some way, we all expect to become great.

Think about when we were children. We would always say, "When I grow up, I want to be (insert job title here)" or "When I grow up, I want to be just like (insert family member, mentor, or personal hero here)". The truth is, even as children, we set pretty high standards for ourselves, often standards we could never fulfill. The sad part of life is waking up one day and realizing that few people ever actually become great. In fact, out of billions of people in the world, only a handful ever achieve greatness and success.

Whenever I am drawn to this topic, I always think about the song "Revolution" by the Beatles. You know the line. "You say you want a revolution? Well, you know, we all wanna change the world." That's just the thing. Everyone wants to change the world and everyone wants to be great.

Sometimes, I think we need to take a step back from changing the entire world to just changing one aspect of it. Alone, I cannot stop animal suffering, but I can educate one owner on how to properly care for their pet. They, in turn, can extend that education to others. Alone, I cannot alleviate poverty and hunger, but I can feed one person for one night. Maybe, in the end, there are no great and powerful people. Perhaps, humanity itself, is a pretty great and powerful thing, especially when we allow it to be used for good.

After 23 years, I am fully sure of the fact that I, alone, will never be a great and powerful hero, but if I can save one life or teach one person for the good of everything, aren't I just as great and powerful as my heroes?