Each day I am reminded that there are sincere people in the world, and it renews my faith in humanity.
It is easy to look at the challenges in the world and feel sad. There are many problems and difficulties that we have to find solutions for. However, we should also be grateful for the positive things that we have. I have often found that the most important thing when I start to feel unsettled is remembering all the things that I have to be grateful for.
Why am I saying this? Yesterday I watched a YouTube video of people in Vietnam who cleaned up and fixed people’s homes who were in poverty, illness, or some other tragic situation. I thought I had seen poverty, but some of these homes were so sad. They often involved old people or old people with young kids, and those people were living in inhuman conditions. It made me angry that we allow people to suffer like this. If the people who made the video didn’t do their good work, those people would have suffered for the rest of their lives.
When I say inhuman conditions, I see no running water, electricity, shelter, or insufficient food. One man whose wife left him with 3 young kids was so skinny and he was just bones. Other homes they fixed, were orphans and didn’t even have a father. Those people truly are going to raise themselves. I thought to myself “Surely this is the worst that can happen to someone.” Then in the next video, the situation was worse. One old woman moved into an abandoned home because she didn’t have anywhere else to go, and the front yard was overrun with poisonous snakes. She risked her life every day.
Why am I saying this? Watching the video I couldn’t help but feel for these people. I look at my situation where I have sufficient water, food, warmth, housing, and way more opportunities and how can I be depressed? How can temporary challenges make me feel hopeless? I have the world at my feet living in the US, and even when we have difficulties, we aren’t in that situation. I didn’t mean to watch those videos, but the more I watched the better I felt about my own life. The same thing happened when I volunteered at a shelter. Each day I felt incredibly grateful after hearing about the tragic circumstances the residents shared with me. Often people need someone to listen to them and care.
I was grateful that the people who made the video existed because not only did they help the people but they helped all the viewers like me who needed to put in perspective our challenges in life. Sincere people change the world for the better just by being who they are.