As I was studying for my test tomorrow — yes, I am sadly taking summer classes — my Pandora station decided to play one of my all time favorite songs: "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer. As I was jamming out to the song — I needed a study break — I started to really listen to the lyrics of the song. As I digested the words and their meaning, I realized that this song applies to problems currently going on globally. I thought about posting it on my Facebook to encourage others to listen, until I saw the release date. The song was released in 2006: 10 years ago. So we were apparently waiting on the world to change in 2006, and 10 years later, we are still waiting? I'm sure someone could argue that some things in America have changed since the release of John Mayer's song. However how much has the world actually changed since then?

With all of the recent tragedies that have happened in the last few weeks, I don't believe that our world has changed for the better. Not only does it seem as if no one can take the blame for anything they have done anymore, but we all spend so much time pointing fingers at each other that we don't even see the destruction we are causing. When something bad happens in America now, we all point fingers at another race, sexuality or age, because we don't want to face the fact that we collectively did something wrong. Our own president can't even admit to the fact that maybe the way he has been handling terrorism is the wrong approach after what happened in Orlando — he just wanted to blame guns. The murder of all of those innocent lives was not done solely because it was a homosexual nightclub, although I'm sure that was a factor. The people who lost their lives in the nightclub were a part of a larger plan, a plan that is leading America into turmoil. The fact that we are even making an argument out of the deaths that occurred in Orlando, and whether or not this was an act against homosexuality, is absurd. Who cares?! Innocent people died. That's it. People with beating hearts, with families, friends, loved ones. Their mothers are never going to get to hold them again. They are never going to see another the sunrise, or sunset. Some of them probably had huge dreams of traveling, graduating college, maybe starting a family, but that is all over now. All because they wanted to have some fun with their friends in a nightclub and some guy decided to kill whoever he could.

I'm still waiting on this sick and psychopathic world we live in to change. Why can't people see others for who they are, instead of pawns in their games and riots? Why is someone else's life less important than theirs? Who said they got to decide that? When girls and boys are abducted from their mothers and brought into sex trafficking, do those who kidnap them even think about what they are doing? They just took little Lily out of preschool just as she was learning to write her name. She will probably never even see her mother again, laugh again or be happy again. But she will know what it is like to grow up alone, cold and sexually abused. But that's OK because it isn't happening to them, the kidnappers. They are only doing their jobs, and for what? To protect their own families, for money, for drugs? Again, the lives of innocent people are being used to fill the needs of those who feel they are more entitled or more deserving to live.

I'm still waiting on people to understand that they don't know everything going on in someone's life. When the child was lost and almost killed by a gorilla, who's to say that the parent's didn't have a few dozen kids to look after? What if they turned around for a second, or had lost the child for a while because he had ADHD and gets lost every now and then? Does that mean he shouldn't enjoy the zoo because of a condition he has? Maybe one of the parents had cancer and couldn't run to catch up with the child as he fell in. Are they not allowed to enjoy the zoo and the last few moments they have with their kids? Yes, I agree the parents should have been watching the child more closely, and the wall into the exhibit should've been higher or modified in some way, but I think we are forgetting that we are all human. We all make mistakes, and sometimes these mistakes lead to horrible outcomes. No one seems to think about what would've happened if the child had been killed by the gorilla. Would we be on social media arguing about how the gorilla should be put down if the child died, instead of blaming the parents for the gorilla's death?

We all make mistakes. Some of them cost more than others. A little boy died because his parents decided not to watch him for two seconds and he was attacked by an alligator. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you really want to hear this story again and again on the news every night? Would you want to hear how you, as a parent, are only getting sympathy from others because you are white? Because now for some reason the loss of your child is a race issue? I'm sick of it. That family lost their little boy. They are never going to see him grow up, get married, go to college or even learn how tie his shoes. They put the blame on themselves enough — we don't need to do that for them.

I'm waiting for the day when we aren't against each other anymore. The constant fighting online and in person is ruining the nation and the meaning of America. We are not united in our states anymore, and there is more hatred in this country I believe, then in all of the other countries combined.There is no more compassion anywhere, and it's getting harder and harder every day to find kind people without an agenda. I'm still waiting for the day we wake up and decide that, "hey, maybe it's a better idea to work together instead of against each other." Maybe the enemy isn't the Mexican we claimed hopped the border and stole our jobs. Maybe they're just a hard worker, and maybe we are our own enemies because we couldn't get off our butts to get the job like they did.

I'm waiting for love to return, and for people to have empathy for others. Everyone's life is valuable. No one should die for another's fight, and we should all be banding together to stop the violence coming down on us. Standing together could allow us to accomplish anything, because I'm sorry if I'm the first to tell you, but America isn't that great of a nation anymore.

So I'm still waiting on our world to change. It's been 10 years and we are still fighting overseas, families are losing loved ones too early and enemies are still free. I'm still waiting on the American nation I read about in history class, and I'm still waiting on us to accomplish something great. I'm still waiting on everyone to be kinder and to think of others before themselves. I'm still waiting for us to rise together and stop the nonsense that we are currently living in.

So when you are ready to join me, I'll be here waiting — waiting for you to join me so we can finally make the world change.