Making a difference

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it. It doesn't matter if you are academically trained to do it or if you had no knowledge to start with in the first place. What matters is that you have the desire for action. If you feel you can or need to change your current situation, all it takes is for you to figure out how much of a change you want to make. Then go ahead and make it.

In life there are many examples of people who have made changes in ways that were unimaginable or who started out with small steps that turned out phenomenally big. Take Gandhi, Martin Luther King, that pakcik in Terengganu who's doing his bit for the turtles. One doesn't have to study wildlife biology to go out there and make a difference. We are not helpless. We just THINK we are. The important thing is: we go out there and MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

And that's where people of action, great people, differ from the norm. The norm just sit around, reading about the news, and then lamenting the fact that they never studied how to save the world or how to save the turtles or how to make a difference when all around them atrocious things are being done that they can't do anything about. The people who make a difference go ahead and make that difference even if they started out not knowing how. They make a difference because it matters. They make a difference because they can. They make a difference because they want to. And they want to bad enough that they would do whatever it takes to make that difference.

One doesn't have to give it all up like Gandhi did. Don't have to be like Mother Teresa either. You may get there in your lifetime, if you want it bad enough or if you're passionate enough. It's a matter of how much of a difference you want to make and how much that passion means to you. If helping out at a turtle sanctuary somewhere off the east coast of Malaysia once a year doesn't seem like a big enough difference, go and do it twice, three times a year. Or better yet, get involved in the planning and the organizing of such an effort. Or put in some time at other volunteer organizations.

There's always a way. But you have to give up something else in your life in order to put in enough time to make that difference that you want to. Maybe you have to give up your reading time, or you need to cut down on other leisure activities. In the end it doesn't matter what else you're giving up because you're doing what you're passionate about and what matters to you. If you're passionate about dancing, go and dance! If you're passionate about saving pandas, go and save the pandas! If writing means so much to you, write!

What good is there in sitting around, lamenting and complaining about what you can't do about the state of the world? While you're sitting around feeling sorry for yourself and the world at large, a difference can be made if you actually just went out there and did something about it. Nothing is fair in life, what you decide is fair for yourself is what matters. What you do to make it fair is what matters. Just because life isn't fair doesn't mean we can't do anything about it if we want to.

We can't save everyone or everything but we can do our bit to help. Rizal signed up as a WWF donor just yesterday. It doesn't cost much, just RM30 a month for as long as he wants to. Now, some may say that that's just giving away money and that's not really helping. Well here's the thing: every little bit helps. Even though we're just drops in the ocean, it's the drops that make up the ocean. And if Rizal should decide that donating money is not enough to help the animals, what's to stop him from volunteering more of his time at organizations like WWF? Nothing. It's a matter of whether he wants to spend that time at WWF rather than RPG-ing.

Some people have taken it all the way: given up their jobs to devote their time and effort in their passion for saving animals, or following their passions, for that matter. It takes an extraordinary individual to sacrifice the material comforts and all that is familiar in order to make that leap. I for one am for material comforts. I have no qualms volunteering once a year or helping out here and there. I see myself making that difference even though it's only in these small ways. For now, that's enough for me. That's the difference I'm making and even though it's not much, it's better than nothing. I've stopped eating shark's fin soup. I recycle as much as I can and my next step to helping the earth and the animals is probably to spread more awareness about how finite our resources are and that this earth is ours to share. Being the top of the evolutionary chain gives us the responisibility and the care of those who are below.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Even though there are still atrocities enacted upon those who share our earth, I believe there are just as many people who care. There are those who care enough to do something about it rather than sit around moaning and lamenting that they can't do anything about it.

And these are the people that make the difference. These are the people who really care.