What Should I Do?

Our world is filled with many different people,
    and all of them have a story to tell.
Some may be good, and some may be too horrible to hear.
Millions of people all around the world live on less than a dollar a day.

As a regular American teenager,
    what can I say to something like that?
I spend more of my own money in a month than
    what an entire family spends in a year. 
        How should I feel about that?
        What should I do?
 
Teens all across America are in the same position as I am.
But then if you ask them what they have done to help families all
over the world, 95% of them would have the same response.
 
We Americans have so much that every day we forget
    about what life really is about.
It’s not about the cars, football games, cell phones, and iPods.
In reality, these things just make us forget even more.

I think of families in their one-room shacks,
    not knowing if they will even wake up in the morning.
The greatest uncertainty for my family every morning is
    not knowing what we will wear.
For the families all over the world,
    what they wear is the last thing on their minds.
So as long as they have clothes,
    they are happy.

Walking through the REAL. LIFE. Exhibit,
    I realized how lucky I am,
    even though I complain about little things every day.
Standing beneath a 25-foot wave that swept across an entire town, seeing the images of the children—
 it made me think.

When I feel like my life sucks
    because I failed a test or
    don’t have money to go to Burger King,
I will remember how blessed I am.

I, for one, want to do something.
I hope that one day I can make a difference
around the world by helping those in need.
This way, every family in the world can enjoy
everything that they want to enjoy.

Alex Simich
Age 17
Westview High School
The Aftermath, Advanced Creative Writing