How Can We as Students Make a Difference?

Writer: Zara Salman

It’s that time of year again: back to school. We all face that first day with different outlooks, emotions, and ideas. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be asking yourself, “How is this year going to be different from last year?” We all want to do better, do more, meet those goals that we set for ourselves. One of my goals for this year is to change the world by tackling a social issue near and dear to my heart. Are you still finding that you can relate?

I’m sure that, as students involved in our community and the world around us, you have been paying attention to the way things are going and have found something that you’d like to change. It might have even been a passing thought, maybe while watching the news or listening in on your parents’ conversations. A clip of the war in Syria was playing, and you thought, “I’d help all the refugees in the world if I could.” It barely even registered as a thought, and you moved on. But why can’t you? What’s stopping you from being the difference you want to see in the world?

Changing the world is a daunting task: I’ll be the first to admit it. You start asking yourself anxiety-inducing questions, like, “Where would I even begin? Who would I talk to? What can I do? Will it ever even change?” And before you know it, you find yourself in pajamas, hiding in your bed with a tub of ice cream, crying because you’ve convinced yourself you’ll be dead before the world becomes a better place. But you ended up in that scenario, not because the world is doomed to stay the same forever, but because you were looking at the problem the wrong way.

The conflict on the Gaza Strip, climate change, and universal health care have one thing in common: they’re all like cake. Too big to eat by themselves, but when divided into manageable chunks, they’re easy to make go away. Cake usually disappears into my stomach, but I want you to make the problem you’re concerned about disappear by resolving the issue. You just have to take it one piece at a time. Think about how you can divide the issue; each problem has its parts. What part concerns you the most, and what concrete action can you take in order to contribute towards changing it?

So, you have your slice of cake. Where are you going to eat it? As students, the easiest place to start is at school. And lucky for you, Havergal is full of opportunities to get involved, or even start something new! Are you amazed that I made it full circle, starting off with talk about school, now ending with it as well, when this article is supposed to be about changing the world? “Ugh,” you’re thinking, “another person telling me to get involved in school.” I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve heard this advice, and it most definitely won’t be the last. However, I think that changing the world is as good a reason as any to finally join Debate! Or MUN! Or maybe even Behind the Ivy?

I’m going to stop before this gets to be shameless self-promotion, but before you throw down the newspaper in frustration, I leave you with this: change doesn’t happen overnight, and it isn’t only for a chosen few. It happens here, with you, and your vision of a better future.