I recently found the newspapers my mom saved from the day I
was born. The USA Today, the Atlanta
Journal and the Atlanta Constitution; all were dusty and faded sitting on the
top shelf of my closet. The headline that
struck me the most was this: “5 billionth human will be born today;” That could
have been me! It’s baffling to consider
that 25 years ago the world was two billion people emptier than it is
today. With the birth of the Earth’s
seven billionth person just yesterday I thought it was quite timely to find
that paper today. Or completely the
opposite of timely, depending on how you look at it.
That’s not it though; the headline goes on, “5 billionth
human will be born today; child likely to grow up poor, illiterate.” And just like that, it could have seemed like
my fate was sealed. As it turns out, I
wasn’t that five billionth person. I was somewhere close in the lineup, but that
headline certainly doesn’t describe all the blessings I’ve had in my life. One of those blessings was being able to live
in Ethiopia
for two years, where I met many people who could have been that five billionth
person.
My life has been privileged, but just as easily I could have
been born into a life of poverty, without education. I read in the article that "nine out of ten babies today are born in the Third World;" Nine out of ten of us born that fateful day in 1986 would be born into poverty. The odds were against me, and yet somehow I
managed to beat them.
I, like many
American children, grew up dragging my feet, not in love with the idea of going
to school every day. Now I realize how
blessed I was to have had the opportunity to be educated, and even today to be
able to continue my education. It’s the
lottery behind the system that puzzles me.
Why did I grow up in America?
Why was I born into this life? It's all chance. But it’s a good reminder that you could just as
easily have been born in a developing country.
We should all be grateful for the blessings in our lives and remember to
show grace and love to others.
All I know is that every day the Earth's population is growing. Every day there are more people that need
assistance. Who am I not to try to help? I’m not sure how or when, but I can’t wait to
continue working in developing countries.
