Apathy Run A Muck

I read over a draft I wrote for a college admissions essay a few weeks back. I've decided not to use it and decided it's not worth the effort to thoroughly edit, so there are quite a few glaring errors. Deal with it. I posted in on here because it seemed to have a strong message to it, and I certainly didn't want it to go to waste. Being on my computer, it'll probably never be seen again after today. Regardless, enjoy, whether or not you agree.

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I've spent days, even weeks avoiding writing this paper. It's not just any paper, only the most important paper I've ever had to write. This paper decides a lot things. So it's kind of a bid deal. An open-ended prompt is refreshing and yet annoying. Being allowed to write about anything, nothing seems good enough. There aren't any clever thoughts that I've had that would seem genius to readers. There are no amazing stories of heroic bravery or determination, no tales of hardship or terrible grievances that I've endured. Additionally, I idealized this paper so much that I, being a very opinionated person, could never express any strong opinion I have out of fear of being wrong somehow, due to lack of experience and knowledge. Heck, I'm only 18 years old; I haven't been around for very long. Somehow it struck me to write about something that bothers me not just a little, but so much that I've lost friends over it. It's a sweeping mentality that's taking over everywhere without discrimination. The latest craze here in America?
Apathy.

Ever since I was a little boy I've wanted to make a difference. Not just a small difference, a huge difference. Not just in my community or even my country, but the whole world. I've wanted to do great things so that people will know me by name and see me as an example. As I've gotten older, I've grown used to school and used to life in general. Now, I've had my slip-ups. I've had a lot mis-steps in life that have led me in directions that don't turn out too well. Those places weren't really where I wanted to go. But I've always found my way back, and in general, I've stayed on a good path. Coming into my final year of dependency and required schooling, I see more opportunities to do things, to take action, be prolific. It started out fun, following my tree-hugging days in elementary, I began to respect the environment more. I recycle, pick up trash I see laying around, and ridicule others for littering. With age, I've become more interested in politics. I became interested just in time for one of history's biggest and closest presidential races. I suddenly started caring what sorts of things were happening around the world. My interests in science and computers took off. My last science fair project had implications in dramatically lengthening the time available to transport living organs and it even had some relevance to cancer research. I found myself converted to non-proprietary software and now I roll my eyes every time I hear the word Microsoft. All these interests, among others, have led to me joining like-minded organizations: The Sierra Club, Ohio Academy of Science Student Advisory Council, Sex, Etc., a registered Linux user. I've begun actively researching and communicating with my Congressional representatives; developing presentations and plans to educate my school and community on global warming and to get our mayor to join the Mayor Climate Protection Agreement and more.

So now I have way too much I want to do and not near enough time to do it. I've lost some of the activities that were most important to me because they were only good for me and not for others as well. I've noticed opportunities, too many opportunities, to do right wrongs. I've also noticed there are too few people to do them. Becoming conscious of so many wrongs that need righted fooled me. I thought I was simply joining in the fray of everyone else taking action to fix these things and better the world. But I look around me at school and everywhere else and I see so little action; so much complaining, but nothing done about it. A teacher showed me a quote on the very first day of school: “We are more aware of our rights than out duties.” By God isn't that the truth. The next time I hear someone complaining about Senator so-and-so, but they've never bothered to contact that representative, I'm going to punch them. “Well,” I thought, “I'll just set an example. People will see me caring about and acting for something and they can follow my lead.” Oh, no. How naive. Living in a small community and attending a significantly small school, extreme views on just about anything is out of the ordinary. Aside from an unusually large Goth population, everyone in our school is very typical. Expressing my relatively radical beliefs renders me ostracized by many people I once respected. Of course, it's a two-way street. I'm sure a significant amount of the ostracizing was done by me. But I couldn't help it. How could I associate with people that refused to take action for something they believed it, always armed with excuses as to why they don't? Now, it's not like I don't have any friends. I have plenty of average friends, several good friends, and one amazing girlfriend. But still so many people I know refuse to do anything about anything.

I inevitably digress from my real point: the world doesn't care. A 30% vote turnout for non-presidential elections? Seriously? The people who actually make the laws and the people who practically run our state and even our own city just aren't important enough to warrant a few hours of our time once or twice a year? The beauty of democracy is almost non-existent today! If I walked up to someone in a mall and asked, “Do you think the Electoral College is an out-dated system?”, they would stare at me blankly. A few braves ones might ask me what the Electoral College is. This attitude isn't just surrounding politics. A friend of mine complains about the terrible gas mileage his giant V-8 gets, when there's a usable sedan in the backyard that nobody drives. Around here, the bigger your truck is, the bigger of a person you are. That's how we measure in my home town: how few miles does your truck get to a gallon of gas? I'll bet mine gets fewer! We have booming suburban development locally, but it's not cutting down huge forests or old trees, and there's no shortage of green space. We have incredibly beautiful falls, and our air is always fresh. So naturally most people around here assume there's absolutely nothing wrong with the environment. Global warming isn't an issue here, it's just a stupid idea. Recycling isn't necessary. If it doesn't pay off for me, then why bother? The mentality is sickening, but it's prevalent.

It's painful to watch the world around me turn more and more towards a completely apathetic lifestyle. The mentality that “It's not my problem, let someone else deal with it.” is becoming more commonplace. People with positions of power find themselves less supervised, and so they do what they want. After the Industrial Revolution, there was action taken to get children out of factories and improve working conditions. Large companies had to shape up. Do you really think corporations today follow the same improved moral standards that they did for the few weeks in the 1800's when everybody was paying attention? No, because nobody paying attention. They follow the same bottom-line morals as they did when the Revolution began.

I don't want to give the impression that I believe everyone and everything in the world is corrupt and bad. It's by no means that way. There are many great people who are doing wonderful things, dedicating time and resources in vast amounts to better the world. But my concern is with the everyday Joe that you see at work or at school. What does he do? What does he even care? It's the masses that are becoming so apathetic. And unfortunately, it's the masses that have the real power, they just don't realize it. History seems to show that it takes a series of extremely terrible tragedies to get the public riled up about anything. Even a few years after 9/11, the country's as polarized as it has ever been before. The world as a whole is fighting over ridiculous things.

There's no real way to wrap up this sort of topic. There aren't any intelligent quotes to throw out, no glimmers of hope or positive prospectives. It's just reality. And all we can hope is that something, something will get people to change. Not just for a week or a year, but for generations to come, lest we end up right back where we started. We can only hope.
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Of course, I think I wrote that in a spurt of frustration, but whatever. Now I have to get back to composing a usable essay. I'm not usually a procrastinator when it comes to important things, especially something as important as a college essay. However, I've foolishly blown the whole college deal out of proportion. In addition to constantly tricking myself into believing I'm much smarter than I really am, I've also exagerated the importance of going to "the" college. Which honestly places me right among those "fools" I've often referred to who only care about going to fancy ivy-league schools. I just replaced those with top science schools. Once November is here and those essays are done, apps submitted, interviews completed, I can focus on more realistic goals. Goals that are probably better for me anyway.

I'm rambling.
Good-bye.