What About Now | Teen Ink

What About Now

May 23, 2011
By Nerdynerd BRONZE, Harvey, Louisiana
Nerdynerd BRONZE, Harvey, Louisiana
4 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Let's give peace a chance"
" I don't like writing, I like having written"
" Live like it's the end of the world"
" I rather be a frootloop in a bowl of cheerios, than a cheerio in a bowl of cheerios"


I was in the living room watching tv at 7am and I was flipping through the channels because there was nothing to watch. I flipped the channel to Vh1 and I saw something that changed my point of view.

It was a music video by one of my favorite artists, Daughtry. The song was called “What About Now.” I watched the video and listened to the lyrics. The video was so real. It showed everything that is happening in the world like world hunger, homelessness, poverty and things like that. It also showed ,e the outcome of those things after we helped them. People who don’t have any food will have food. People who don’t have any homes will get into a shelter until they get jobs and get money. People suffering with poverty will get some money. Everything that is a problem now, won’t be a problem later, if we help.

The lyrics resonated with me. It said “What about now? What about today? What about love?” I think I know what it meant. It meant that people say they are going to help tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. But they never say now when now is when we need the help and the creativity.
Even me. I say I’m going to do things but I never do.
I remember when I was 6 years old and my mom used to own a bar. I always helped her. There was always this guy that came. His name was Roger. He was homeless and had no money. My mom always gave him free beer. I felt bad for him. I really wanted to help, so one day, I did.

I was at the bar, sitting on a little stool and he came in. He asked my mom for beer and she gave it to him. He left and sat in his little corner. I look at him. I finally got an idea to help him. I got a napkin and a red pen and wrote. It was a note. It said that I really cared for him even though I didn’t talk to him , and how being an alcoholic is bad and how he needed to take a bath so people won’t be afraid of him. I also gave him money. I gave him about 6 cents. It was much, but it was something I waited for him to leave his corner for a second to put the note there. He left and I ran and put the note before he came. I sat on a table where I could watch him go to his spot and read the note. I saw him going to his spot and saw him look at the note. He smiled. Before I saw anything else, I had to leave. My mom told me that after I left he came and said,” I am not a life wasted.”
It makes me sad to think that there might be a lot of Rogers around in the world. That’s what inspires me. I don’t like seeing people suffer.
There is a lot of stuff happening right now. A kid is maybe dying from hunger. Someone is probably getting shot. An acre of a rainforest is being removed. Animals are being endangered. Nobody knows but we know it is happening.
We all say this is bad and that we are in hell right now. Well newsflash! We are making it bad. We have no excuse. Yes, we have jobs and school and things we have to take care of but we don’t have to do huge things to make this world change. We can start small and then go on from that.
Think about it: when was the last time we’ve seen positive news and hardly any negative?
We keep saying that the president isn’t doing anything for this country and blah blah blah! Hello! The president has other things to do. We have a democracy and we vote for who we want to be president and who we want to represent us, so why can’t we help? Like one great man said,” Ask not what your man can do for you: ask what you can do for our country.”
We are the people and we decide how we want our country to be. We all don’t agree on how the government should be, but we all agree on one thing: We want peace and we want to stop bad things from happening.in order to do that, we must help our president accomplish our desire. For once, we want to stop worrying our kids are going to get kidnapped. For once, I want to see good news instead of bad.
I have changed by helping the people who need it, encouraging the people that want to and exchanging ideas to see which one is better for our future.



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