Like everyone else in the world, since March I have had nothing if not time to sit around with myself and my thoughts. This year seems to be one wakeup call after another, and although systemic racism, police brutality, and poor healthcare is nothing new, this year has been a year of realizations and waking up from our ignorance. I’ve been left with stress and feeling like I’m not doing enough, like so many other people. “Am I handling the pandemic properly?” And “how could I be safer?” are questions that run through my head daily, and more and more often, questions of how I can do my part in environmental, social, and local issues fill my thoughts.
As college students, it can be hard to have our voices heard. Right now, many young people’s thoughts are still looked down upon with the notion of them being too far left or too radical. Along with this, trying to do something can be frustrating and defeating, there seems to be such a huge “go big or go home” mentality. Trying to do everything right all at once can be mentally draining, so I’ve been trying to do what I can, when I can.
This mentality goes with the fact that we are in a constant state of re-educating ourselves, and it’s not always a linear process. Mistakes will be made, and new things will be learned. With the “go big or go home” attitude that seems to come up about social issues, it can be hard to think about small efforts and their impact. What we need to remember is that a thousand small efforts can be just as astronomical as one large effort. While one person won’t be able to completely solve climate change, a thousand people choosing to recycle and compost more, or eat less meat and animal products, can help. One person won’t be able to solve issues of racial, economic, and gender inequality, but we can all start checking our biases by questioning and correcting them.
On that note, one person wearing a mask won’t completely help Coronavirus, but the entire population of the United States wearing one will help slow the spread. Anyways, go wear a mask, and stop going out to Beale Street!