Last spring break I was lucky enough to travel to the city of La Paz, Bolivia. While there, I worked in a small orphanage and school for abandoned children. During this time in Bolivia, my eyes were opened to many things, including the immense sense of stability that we as americans, are very blessed to have in our everyday lives. These Bolivian children were victims of abusive households of all kinds, and many of the children’s families were unable to even support them. I witnessed people collecting rainwater to drink, growing next to everything that they ate, and making dangerous journeys over the mountain to reach the orphanage day after day. What I did not witness was ungratefulness or complaints. These children, ravaged by the poverty of their city …show more content…
It is important to teach our children that poverty is not just something that happens in far away places and third world countries, but something that could be happening just down the road. As a young adult, I have been exposed to many more things than I ever would’ve expected to experience, and I have witnessed poverty in not only Bolivia, but in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Arkansas, and in my own town of Waynesville, North Carolina. Recently, I have felt the need to help people in my direct area before traveling elsewhere, and in a small town, it is not always easy to find a way to make a difference. Through National Honor Society I have been offered many chances to provide assistance to people in need, but I have not been lead directly to these chances, and as a senior in high school, I think that it is my responsibility and duty to find ways to make a difference without being directly lead by someone