I strongly believe that almost everyone wants to change the world. Maybe just a little bit, maybe even for the wrong reasons, but I think deep down we all have a little “I want to change the world” in us and that’s why we’re still here. That’s why when tragedy strikes, we rush to social media to say something, anything. That’s why we tear up at those sad animal commercials. Even if there’s nothing we can do, there’s something deeply human inside of us that just doesn’t sit right with all the cruelty happening in our world.

So we live our lives trying to combat that, trying to give back to the world in whatever way we can. Some people become doctors, some teachers. Some people give to charities. Some dedicate their lives to raising a kind, loving, and hardworking future generation. We need all of these things. Thank you to everyone who does these things and more. However, I feel like if we could sum up how to change the world in just one word it would be compassion. One place I have seen an overwhelming amount of compassion is the "Humans of New York" blog.

"Humans of New York" (HONY) is a photo blog started by Brandon Stanton. You can check it out all major social media sites or humansofnewyork.com. Brandon wonders around New York City, interviewing random people, asking to hear their stories. When I started following HONY two years ago, the stories were mostly cute: kids talking about what they wanted to be when they grow up, couples telling their love stories. As time went on, the stories got deeper. I read stories of addicts, of homeless people who were once CEOs of major companies but are now on the street battling major mental illnesses. I read stories of kids who grew up in the projects and witnessed things in 12 years that nobody should ever witness in a lifetime. There were stories of hardened criminals who came out of prison and started programs to help keep kids from making the same mistakes they did.

Reading these stories is humbling. No matter how hard you try not to, everyone has judged someone at some point. We get so busy putting labels on people like “Druggie,” “Lazy,” “Criminal” that we forget the most important one, the only one that matters…human. It’s no coincidence that it’s called Humans of New York instead of “People of New York” or “Stories of New York” This page challenges us to stop putting conditions on our compassion, to realize the human that is in all of us.

Once you do that, miracles happen. If you don’t believe me, look at all the amazing things HONY has already done. In 2015, Brandon interviewed a young man who talked about the influence his principal and school had on him.

The school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy, is an inner city school where most of the students come from troubled, broken homes of low socioeconomic status. Brandon later interviewed the principal who mentioned her mission to teach these kids that no matter what their circumstances were, there was no limit on their potential. After the interview, Brandon opened a GoFundMe to raise money for the school, and within days HONY followers had raised over one million dollars.

Brandon has also traveled outside of the country, interviewing Syrian refugee families, telling horror stories of war, bloodshed, disease, and death. Again, Brandon put out the signal and his followers raised $750,000 to go to refugee families.

Most recently, he interviewed pediatric cancer patients, their parents, doctors, and nurses and as a result has raised $3.8 million for pediatric cancer research. At least once every day, I hear someone mention how bad the world has gotten. That may be true, but I can also say that a world where strangers come together to raise that kind of money for these reasons is a world I want to live in.

Brandon’s posts during his visit at Sloan’s pediatrics were probably some of my favorite. The children in those stories, fighting cancer instead of going to school, are stronger than I’ll ever be. The doctors who have watched 100 children die, but keep working because if they can just save one child their life will be worth it—they’re my heroes. Sometimes I wonder how in a city of eight million people, Brandon happens to always find the heroes, the fighters, the givers. Well, he doesn’t. He doesn’t just find extraordinary people, he finds the extraordinary in every person he meets. Every person you know has a story just as deep as the people on this blog.

Look around you. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to people in the store. Learn from them. Have compassion on them. Change the world. C.S. Lewis said, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”