By Brendan Hellweg ’14

Greg Mortenson generated a stir among the student body when he came to the Williston Gymnasium to tell us about his unique adventure. He spoke of topics in Pakistan such as education, living conditions, the rights of women, and most disturbingly, child slavery. It is easy to think of slavery as a sin of the ancient past, but when he showed us the slide of the twelve year old child lost to slavery, garbed in grease and sweat covered rags, it all became too frighteningly close to home. The child was young enough to be someone I would babysit for. It shocked me when I saw his face, a face aged and weary with the pain of having lived the life of a slave.
I hope we all left the presentation motivated to help the world a little more. But what can one teenager really do? What can we alone do to make our world better? We can build a school, but that only helps a couple kids in one town. And there are millions of children who need help. What does it mean in the long run if those couple dozen kids are better off?

It means everything. Each one of them can become a teacher, or a doctor, someone who can help the world. Ten kids can help a hundred, and those hundred can help a thousand. The work one does is exponential. One step becomes two, and two becomes four. What we alone can do may be limited, but the repercussions of our actions can change the world. And that is why we as a people must actively try to aid those in need, why we must have the drive to improve life whenever we have the chance. We at the Williston Northampton School have been blessed with so many more opportunities and possibilities than so much of the world. Because of this, it is our duty to use those blessings to spread our good fortune to all, regardless of their race, religion, or class. We have the option to help this world and so we must do so, however we can. This is the philosophy that Greg Mortenson lives by. He had the ability to help the children in Korphe, so he did so without hesitation or regard to his own needs. Mortenson chose to assist the world by helping educate the children of impoverished Central Asia. Now I ask you to choose your way. How will you change this world for the better? What will your impact be? It does not have to be as devoted or extreme as that of Mortenson, but as long as you do your best to make a positive change on this world, then you are a success in my book.