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So as it turns out, maintaining a blog and applying to college are incredibly incompatible tasks. Despite my mighty efforts to crank out at least one brief article, my time was mostly consumed with overly redundant essays encompassing “my biggest adversity” or “what I'm passionate about and why” in less than 250 words, which is, by the way, a lot harder than it sounds. Nevertheless, I am now an incoming freshman at Northeastern University, with a computer full of college applications and what seems to be a neglected blog.
However, the lack of writing directly juxtaposes the state of the world. Between the Ukrainian and Russian war, a series of incredibly devasting natural disasters, and Roe v. Wade being overturned, the past year has been hectic, to say the least.
Now, the war in Ukraine prevails as NATO warns that this could be a long-term struggle. What began on a cold morning in late February has now taken more than 14,000 lives according to the United Nations. Consequently causing ripple effects in countries around the world as sanctions and efforts to stop Russia seem to fall short. Now, Ukraine anxiously waits for its candidate status in the European Union and braces itself for more incoming attacks.
As for the natural disasters, there is one in particular that permanently changed my life. Hurricane IDA. The Category four hurricane ripped Louisiana to pieces coincidentally around the time I became heavily involved with a nonprofit known as Third Wave Volunteers. A nonprofit that specialized in crisis mitigation. One that became the emergency response team for IDA alongside the Red Cross. I flew out with them in late October and began to help rebuild the destroyed and underprivileged communities throughout the state. Poverty and destruction were all that met the naked eye but as time went on feelings of hopelessness were quickly replaced with empathy and compassion. Trailer parks were now burial grounds for dead animals and broken homes. Yet, the impoverished Mexican immigrants gave up half of their tents and water to the neighboring Americans who had lost it all. We stayed on-site for a week. Traveling through Lousiana in large trucks distributing survival supplies and medical attention wherever it was needed. Until we slowly saw life come back as streets filled with canned potlucks and acapella music. I will never forget the people of Lousiana, the way they had unconditional empathy and compassion for total strangers. A complete inspiration to how the rest of the world should be.
I have finally managed to get back to writing, and just in time. The world is changing, and it is changing fast.
