Taking time to reflect back on my life, I have been able to dig deep within myself, pull back some layers, and discover things that have always been within me that I had just never paid close enough attention to or given the time to understand. It is so hard to keep in touch with/find our inner selves living in such a fast-passed and materialistic society, but I am learning to take the time to do so.
To me a hero is someone who selflessly serves and makes a positive difference in the broader surroundings. There are heroes around us everyday, performing small and large acts of kindness. Some of the first people who come to mind when I think of hero and/or goddess, include Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Mother Teresa. Each of these individuals made such an incredibly large and positive difference in the world, the changes that they made are still around today, they are people who I look up to and admire; they are some of the world’s greatest legacies. Reflecting back on my time in Rwanda though, I realized I was surrounded by so many heroes/goddesses whom even though they will never receive credit or recognition, they have left an everlasting impact on my life.
The Genocide survivors who continue to live their lives in the best possible way they can, these people are all heroes. I was fortunate enough to personally hear some of their stories: from a young 14 year old boy who hid between a shed and a fence for days before fleeing to join the RPF to help fight back and restore the country to peace; to a grown man who was a husband and father, who remained lying under the dead bodies of his family for hours until dark when he was able to flee to the dark hills to hide. The will to survive of these people is so incredible. So many times we take life for granted here, we think life is so tough and at times, unfortunately, some people resort to suicide to relive the pain. We can be so quick to hate our lives when there are people out there who have lived through nightmares, who have gone through hell, and still found a will and reason to survive and go on living. If this isn’t a hero, I don’t know what is.
Another part of the heroism of the survivors of the Rwandan Genocide was the power of forgiveness. Rwanda is now at peace, and that is due to a great deal of forgiveness. People are living next to those who killed their parents/children/siblings/aunts/uncles/cousins. The amount of forgiveness that takes truly amazes me, for I don’t even know if I could do that, but it is a lesson and example for me, and hopefully to others too. If a country can go through a mass genocide, and forgive their family’s killers enough to go on living with one another in peace, why can’t a country like ours forgive each other for so much less wrong doings and be able to look at the greater good. The sense of limiting one’s own pursuits, status, and access to resources in order to promote the general welfare seems almost un-American to many people here, but I’ve come to the conclusion that there is so much for a developed country like ourselves to learn from those who are less fortunate.
When I think about the definition of a goddess and who in my life has been a goddess, my mom was the first person to come to mind; she has given up so much and made so many sacrifices in order to give me and my siblings the privileged lives we have, and without her I would not be where I am today. My mom is without a doubt a goddess in my life and will always remain that way, but I’ve realized some more goddesses in my life that I wasn’t quick to think of; I actually don’t even know their names, but the lessons I have learned from their actions are ones that I constantly will remind myself of as I go through life. The life of a Rwandan woman is nothing close to glamorous or luxurious, women here in America wouldn’t even think of living their lives like them, in fact, the majority of us wouldn’t even be able to handle it. No matter where I walked in Rwanda or the time of day, there was always a woman, usually with a baby strapped to her back, swinging a pick, working the fields that are on the hills, with the sun beaming down on her. She doesn’t take breaks, and most importantly, she doesn’t complain; she doesn’t think that life is unfair, she doesn’t feel that anyone owes her more than she has, she simply does what she does in order to survive and provide for her family. She is never going to be given an award, her face will never appear on the front of a magazine, and when she dies the world isn’t going to pause for its loss. But to me, there is no better definition of a goddess than a strong and hard-working Rwandan woman.
These are all lessons that I will take with me throughout my life and carry through my career as I continue to serve and help others. I have realized things that I have always had or already experienced, but which I just didn’t know were there because I hadn’t given them enough time or thought.
Someone asked me what my bliss was, and I was caught off guard. What is my bliss? It wasn’t something I had ever really thought of before. I thought of what the definition of bliss was and then began to reminisce on times in my life where I experienced bliss; from holding my little sister for the first time, stepping foot in the ocean, riding a horse through an open field, a first kiss, laughing with best friends, saying I love you, hearing I love you, making someone smile, succeeding in something a lot of hard work has gone into, to playing with nine adorable golden retriever puppies. And I look into my future and know that there will be many more moments of bliss; from traveling, graduating college, my first day at my first job, my wedding day, to holding my first child for the first time. There are moments of bliss around us everyday and I can easily say that much of my bliss is my family. But has my bliss, or experiences of, taught me, and how will I pursue that in my future?
I go back to my time in Rwanda – it was a time in my life of pure bliss. Life was in a much slower pace and I knew that I was sacrificing so many of my privileges for the broader good, and that I was doing something greater with my life than just merely surviving and going through the motions. It was a time where I was truly in touch with myself and my surroundings. I had never felt so content and so much pure joy. Finding my bliss, my pure bliss, has helped me figure out where my passion lies and what I want to do with my future. I want to serve those who are less fortunate than myself. I know that I have been blessed in so many ways and live a privileged life compared to so many people in the world, and I feel that it is my duty, that I owe society, to do my part in making the world a better place. I know that I want to use my life as a bridge; a bridge between different races, religions, sexual orientations, and financial backgrounds. In a book I read last year in one of my FHS classes called Whatever It Takes, Geoffrey Canada said that with so much need in the world it cannot be a goal to help and make a difference in just one life, but to do so in the lives of hundreds or even thousands.
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls”.
I know that the society and country of which I am a part of are so privileged, and that we literally consume such a disproportionate share of earth’s resources; this is a reminder that I must be committed to raising the quality of life of those in poorer settings. I will set out to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place, for what I have seen so far in life compels me to seek to continually improve on the world, perhaps most of all the human society I’ve inherited, and ultimately leave the world a better place than I found it.
No comments:
Post a Comment