I Love Lists

I document much of my life in lists (usually in cute lil' journals with elastics around the side). They're titled things like "TO DO 9/16" or "Questions to ask [insert role model here]". My most recent one was titled "Things I Want to Know More About". It looked like this:
Human trafficking
Current Events
Mental Problems like anxiety
I'm reading this book on human trafficking at the moment and the stuff it describes is beyond what I can possibly imagine. I think one of the things that makes human trafficking stick with me is the fact that so many of its victims are kids, a staggering percentage of which are girls my age who are forced into domestic servitude or prostitution- not to mention the legions of teenage boys who are conscripted into other equally horrific positions. As I get older, it's becoming more and more clear to me how very lucky I am- I can and do worry about the apocalyptic headlines, but what I'm likely to be affected by is not Ebola, but more along the lines of my younger brother calling me "Lumpy" or a day when I have to take the metro instead of get a ride from my mom. I'm privileged enough to be able to sit in my room with my clothes and books and consider the best way to help these people from a secure position. At the same time, it's also easy to feel helpless, like the only way to make change happen is to have money or power or at least the eligibility to vote. When I get older, I'd like to be an investigative journalist, so that I can call attention to the atrocities in the world (boy, there are a lot of them) so they can be fixed. I'm learning more about what needs help on this planet and I feel that I should use all my words that currently go into talking about ballpoint pens or whatever (there are a surprising amount of those words) to assist an individual or a situation somehow. Today is the Jewish New Year and my second set of NY's resolutions (hey, another list!) is as follows:
Learn how to help the world
Learn to not worry as much about the world
I'm young and maybe a little dumb, but I'm going to do my best.