dear world wide web,

Today in class we were talking about how it is easier to pretend to care about things than to actually care about things. Now, I do actually care about things, however, I don't act upon it as much as I used to. This difference happened when I went from high school to college.

In high school, I was an extremely active student. I was in a ton of clubs, I played three sports, and I was constantly doing community service. I worked four days a week and loved every second of it. I was a complete overachiever and enjoyed every second of it. I want to be involved in everything and I really wanted to make a difference.

I achieved a lot in high school, I went on leadership conferences, model united nation conferences, I worked to pass a proposal for my school to shut all the lights off for a full day to conserve energy and spread awareness about sustainable development.

I even started a student organization called S.U.P.E.R. (Student for Understanding, Peace, and Establishing Reform)and it was successful. We raised over $1000 for both the crisis in Darfur and Doctors Without Borders.

In any case, I did stuff. I cared, and it was well known that I cared.

Then I came to college. What happened?

Now, I volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters, I volunteer for organizations when I go home, and I am in a sorority. I work two jobs and am currently taking 19 credits.

It's not that I don't care anymore; because I truly personally do not believe that it is easier to pretend to care. I think the reason that I am not as involved anymore is because I have a lot less time and a lot more responsibility.

I see posters on campus and I talk to people in my classes who are in clubs. A lot of people claim they have a hard time getting people to show up for meetings regularly. It got me thinking that everyone's busy. This lead me to think about Hamlet's Blackberry.

Although some people are busy with important things, I am sure there are people who make themselves busy. I think the people who think that it is easier to pretend to care than to actually care and act upon it are the people who make themselves busy.

There are some people who's daily routine is to go to class or work, go on facebook, watch movies, sleep all day, and then go out get drunk, wake up hungover, and repeat the cycle. These are the people who we have to worry about.

Thee good thing is that I have hope! This class, although at first it scared the hell out of me, has taught me that there is hope. So once again, I am going to set a goal. This goal is more of a long-term goal because like I said, I am very busy.

My goal is to eventually be able to write and motivate people through my writing to stop pretending to care and instead to care enough that they want to and actually do act upon it.

I have faith.

Kiersten