Journal Entry #14

With the stress of final exams, projects and presentations, I often find myself overwhelmed and riddled with worry. In the past, before this semester, to cope with these emotions I would typically go take a nap or watch a show in Netflix to distance myself from current state. However, this semester in the midst of finals prep, I decided to go talk a walk instead. Sunday afternoon was a random, beautiful, sunny day in the midst of the cold, December winter, so I figured why not take advantage of it. I even encouraged my friends to come with me and take a break from it all. We didn’t talk much during the excursion, but just walked and admired all that was around us. I think we often forget about the little, extraordinary things around us. We are constantly looking for the bright, shiny, new things to fawn over but so quickly to forget to acknowledge the beauty in the minute details. Every single one of them talked after about how helpful and needed it was. I think that speaks to the power of this class. While we are twelve students that come and sit in class every week, our power for outreach extends far beyond just twelve people. We have now started to educate ourselves and have the potential to become change leaders in our community and social circles. The change can be small and live in the minute details of the world, or it can even begin to tackle the world’s largest problems. We have built the foundation, now just need to leverage our new insight.