I am a white, 20-year-old young man living in a middle-class family in the richest country in the world. I went to one of the best high schools in the nation and then onto a wonderful university where I now study politics and philosophy. I drive a decent 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee, possess an iPhone that gives me access to seemingly unlimited information, and just bought a pair of $40 shoes. I live in a loving home with an amazing family that has shaped the person I am today. I’m proud of who I am today. My parents got me here: two parents who loved me and cared for me unconditionally for my entire life, working to give me every opportunity I have had. I know how privileged I am. I am not only privileged for these few big characteristics, but also for the small ones. I am lucky to have a bed to sleep in every night. I am lucky to have a fresh meal every day. I am lucky to have clean water available for me. I am unbelievably lucky to have the life that I have. I didn’t choose it. There were no options for me. I was born into all of this and I recognize that. I also recognize the countless number of people in the world who dream of the life I have.

There are people who spend each day fighting to live whereas I sit on my comfortable bed, in my room, typing this article on my MacBook air. There are people who don’t have clean water, homes, or education. There are people in the world who truly believe that they do not matter. An entire race experiences hardship every day that I have never felt before. It is time to show them, and all those who feel ignored, that help and recognition is underway. There are people who die every day of diseases that can’t be found in the United States. I am privileged to eat every meal while starvation is a critical problem on the other side of the world. There seems to have been an idea sewn into humanity that defies all of human nature: that we are in this alone, we work for solely ourselves and don’t pay attention to the others around us. Division has torn us apart. This is an idea that goes against human nature. It hurts to see someone in pain, to see someone suffering. As they ask for help, it used to hurt to say no. Today that has changed. We, and by “we” I mean all of us with privilege, have grown to happily walk by the outstretched hands of the helpless as they ask for us to reach towards them. Kindness and compassion are slowly being eradicated from the hearts of human kind. Selfishness is filling those holes. The responsibility to help others has been faded out into a new question, asking, "Why should I help anyone?” You don’t need to help anyone, but why has the moral standard fallen so low?

We use excuses for the homeless saying, “They didn’t work hard,” or, “They should have been smarter.” Helping and showing kindness to others has become so uncommon that people applaud and congratulate the action. Kindness should be expected of all people. It should be a norm of society and the world, but it isn’t. Privilege is the horn that calls us to responsibility. With my overwhelming privilege that I was born into, I have a responsibility to help the people who were born into lives of sickness, little food, brutal housing, and daily survival that they also did not get to choose. I have a lucky life where I have the power to do something meaningful. How wasteful it would be if I were to spend the entire life thinking only of myself, when I was lucky enough to be able to help others.

With this great privilege that I now have on my shoulders, I also take on the responsibility to help those who do not have the luck that I do. Because of my circumstances, I have a responsibility to help those who are in lesser welfare states than I. The realization of privilege opens the eyes to the luck we are born into and the chance we have to make a difference. The next part is accepting the moral responsibility that comes as well. I live in a situation where I don’t worry about much. I have the opportunity to grow wiser and continue learning through education and experience. It is my obligation to take advantage of this life, because there are those in the world who would leave everything behind to have what I possess. I owe it to those people, to make this world a better place through helping others, practicing kindness, and educating myself as well as those around me. I will live with more than I will ever need to be happy, when some will live with nothing and still find happiness. I feel a moral duty to help those out there, giving them what I can so that another person may gain an opportunity. Whether it is food on the table, a warm bath, a new home, or a piece of wisdom, my life is a ship set sail to help all islands I may port at.

I am not telling you what you should or should not do, but think of the life you could have been born into, one with no food or water and ask, “Why won’t they help me?” We are one species, human, who has been divided by differences when we should be bonding by differences. We breathe the same air, live on the same planet, and share common core beliefs. We all cry the same, suffer the same and bleed the same, but we can also laugh the same, smile the same and love the same. My privilege is there. I want to use it for those without the luck I have. It is my responsibility. The way I use my life will define me. I refuse to only use it for myself.