As many of my Friends and Family know, for some time I have wanted to be a Jesuit Volunteer. There are many great reasons why people dedicate their time to Service, each unique to the individual. My parents are two the hardest working people I know, giving their everything for myself and my brothers, moving mountains to give us an amazing life. In High School I was shown the fact that not everyone gets the same opportunities I did, and the more I learned about society and the systemic barriers that hold entire groups back from having the same access to happiness and success that I have, the more I wanted to change that. The Media today has made us hyper aware of the world we live in, of all the inequity and injustice that plagues our country and our planet. It feels like every day there is a new Horror coming out of Pandora’s Box, a new tragedy, another villain set on breaking us down. For some this is simply how the world works and move on with their lives, others become overwhelmed and feel powerless to do anything, paralyzed by the sheer magnitude of the problems we face. I am not going to pretend to have the answers, that I know what is best and how to fix everything, I certainly do not. But what I do know is that we can start to help people. One of my favorite stories is of the kid on the beach. One day an adult is out walking when they come upon a child flinging Starfish into the Sea. The beach is covered so thickly with the creatures that not a grain of sand is in sight, and the kid is just going to each one and putting it back into the water. The adult tells the child that they will never get all of them, that they won’t even make a dent. They tell the child it doesn’t matter what they do. The kid picks up a Starfish and places it back in the water and says “It mattered to that one.” The good we do, no matter how small, how few people it affects, is never wasted, it always matters, if only to that one person. If people only realized how much good a single person can accomplish in a single day, they would be inspired. I know I am. That is why I want to be a Jesuit Volunteer, to go out and start helping people in any way that I can. And  I hope you fee the same way.