The Global Citizen Festival is held annually at Central Park’s Great Lawn in New York City. It is an event that brings people together with music while raising awareness about important issues, and promoting change.

The Global Citizen organization is primarily run through their app. When you complete actions, you get points which can be used to enter raffles to win tickets to fun events such as concerts and football games. Specific actions let you enter the draw for tickets to the Global Citizen Festival. Actions include signing petitions, calling and emailing leaders and congressmen, and tweeting. Sending a tweet may seem insignificant, but all those tweets and emails add up and do make change. It’s about working together to make a difference. Hopefully, learning about these issues and the people who dedicate their lives to causes will convince others to do more than just sign a petition. The Global Citizen Festival aims to end extreme poverty by 2030, with the help of all the Global Citizens of the world.

I’ve gone to the festival many times, and I will admit, like many others, I originally went for the musical guests being featured. The first time I went was the first year the event was held. I went with my family to see The Black Keys, Band of Horses, Foo Fighters and Neil Young. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday. I was blown away when I looked around me to see over 60,000 people in the same place—none of whom would be there if they didn’t take action to support a cause.

The artists are there to support the causes too. This year's headliner Stevie Wonder spoke beautifully about standing together and finding love, and he took "not just one knee, but both knees in prayer for our planet, our future, and leaders of our world.”

Between the musical performances, speakers, hosts, and celebrities will come up and discuss current global issues, most pertaining to poverty, hunger, sanitation, and education for girls. After hearing these people talk about what’s going on in the world, especially those who experience it first-hand, it has opened my eyes.

The speakers discuss global issues affecting millions of people around the world every day, and they also celebrate the victories helping those issues. This year at the Global Citizen Festival, it was stated that over 90% of countries have sexist laws, who don’t protect the 15 million girls forced into marriage each year before age 18. Last year, however, Malta repealed a law that legalized violent abductions of women. It was amazing to see that our voices helped to make that happen.

It was also stated at this year’s festival that right now South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen are on the verge of famine, and 20 million people, including 1.4 million children, are at risk of starvation. The UN issued a call for $4.9 billion in funding for all four countries, and $2.7 billion has been raised. 75,000 actions have been made by the Global Citizens to support this campaign. That’s thousands of people coming together to help this cause.

Going to this festival has also put things into perspective for me. It made me realize how completely insignificant our first world problems are. I’m sure we all know we are privileged and incredibly lucky to live in a first world country, but next time you yell at the barista for forgetting your extra whipped cream, perhaps it’s time to take a second and remember just how lucky we are. We have health care and we have luxuries as simple as bathrooms; things that should be rightly provided, not seen as privileges.

We can use our privileges to make change, especially through the power of social media. Davinia James from Jamaica was one of four amazing and inspiring young people welcomed on stage at the festival to share her accomplishments. She collected 1.5 million pennies and sent 228 girls to school. This is something anyone can do. Through Facebook, any of us could inspire hundreds of people, and through their friends, inspire thousands.

We are on this beautiful Earth together, and there’s only one. It’s time to support the human race as a whole and to promote peace, equality, and freedom. I am a Global Citizen and I encourage you to be one too.