When reality hits

Lately ive been watching a lot of the news and been looking into a lot of things happening around the world online and its affected me a lot. Knowing that here i am, i have a home, i have food, i have my family, i have access to education and i still have all my limbs. Then i see and hear stories from around the world of people, of children who are missing limbs, who don't have food, who are battling the harshest diseases in the harshest conditions and some who have lost all their family. Yet they are still happy and grateful that they are at least still alive for that one present day.

Tayyab lost a leg to a landmine in Dera Ismail Khan District. The 2010 floods had washed mines into the district from a nearby conflict zone. “I saw something that looked like a thermos cap,” said his father. “I gave it to my children to play with… I heard a big explosion… I came out and saw Tayyab lying in a pool of blood… I feel so guilty…Only if I had some education, I would not have done something so stupid.”

This all made me realize one thing, the fact that i wake up every morning and i complain that i have to be up this early to be going to uni. When in fact i should be thanking god that i woke up this morning and being thankful that i have access to a university education.

As much as we may whine or moan over our worldly problems, always remember someone has it worse than you…

I go out and i complain about how cold it is. I should be thankful i have clothing.

I get to midday and complain about how tiring my day has been. I should think of those who world endlessly and at the end of the day probably end up with less than $1. I should be thinking about children forced into child labor. Young girls forced into marriage having to provide for their new families now.

I get home and complain about leftovers. I should be thanking god i have food. I should be thanking my parents for making that food. I should be thankful i still have my parents well and alive.

I go to bed thinking about the next day, about what i will wear, what i will do. I will go to bed thinking about the things which happened on this day, the meaning-less conversations ive had with people, the gossip ive heard about others. In fact i should be thankful i had ears to hear these conversations, thankful i had a voice to speak, thankful i am still well and alive.

Although lately ive been going to bed thinking about those who don't have beds to sleep in, those who don't have homes, those who don't have their families with them. those young girls who are forced into marriage, those children forced into child labor, those in somalia starving for food, those parents in afghanistan and iraq putting their children to sleep not knowing whether they will get hit by a rocket that night, not knowing whether they will see their children the next morning. Those who don't have access to the simplest medication, to clean water. Those people who are discriminated against because of the color of their skin, their religion, or their ethnicity.

I asked her where she wanna be when she 25. She turned around and looked at me and said, “alive”

I have a lot to be thankful for. It truly saddens me when i hear and think about these stories. In the 3rd world in which we live in a lot of people don't even think of the world beyond.

Vheety, India: An agricultural worker’s child cries as his mother gathers in the wheat harvest

 This is Humanity at its strongest. “An elderly man brought children to see the medics.”

I'am a 19 yr old afghan girl living in new zealand. Who before now i can say i truly did live in my own world, my parents had sheltered me my whole life about the hard life they had endured back home and only ever told me the good stories. of course growing up i had more questions more questions about why my own afghan people were killing themselves, why they were fighting, why were people treating us differently as soon as they found out that we were afghan? through my own life experiences so far, and the knowledge i gain everyday about myself and others around me i want to some how contribute to this world. And someday i hope i can achieve this goal. maybe be even writing this one post whom maybe 1 other person may read and start changing how they view the world, even this would be a good start. Every little bit counts.