My Piece
As a young man born and raised in sunny southern California, I have had the privilege of fast-food, faster service, and the fastest money can buy; but what happens when currency isn't an option. What happens when the floor falls out from under you at the same time as the roof caving in on your head? What if you don't even realize that this is going on while it's happening because you're so caught up in the moment that you have missed the rapture; the beginning of the end. Now what if when you look up from what ever it is you're doing, and instead of panic, you grasp the nature of the beast. Although you felt safe and sound, things around you we're transpiring that you had no control over. Things that you would never want control over, but in your moment of clarity instead of seeking control over the situation you seek to contribute to the solution instead, you decided that your reality is only one small speck of the devastation this world is seeing, and you seek to contribute yourself to the growing process. You seek to help someone who has never met you, someone who doesn't even know you exist, but that doesn't matter because you have gained strength through your pain and realized that to heal pain you must show compassion. My pain is a feeling, the world's pain is reality.
After reading that first paragraph I feel like some kind of self-pitying martyr, but I swear to you that is not the case. This however; is my case. The next 250 to 500 words will try to make you understand why you should or should not choose me to volunteer for The Peace Corps. Which for some reason, or another has been left up to you to decide my "volunteer status"...not to me, which I find odd, but moving on. My name is Andrew Micheal White (formerly known as Andrew Micheal Smith for your investigation purposes). As previously stated I was born and raised in San Diego, California. I graduated 238th out of 270 in my class. I "volunteered" for the Submarine Force at the age of 18, and was a qualified Submariner on board the mighty warship Olympia at the age of 20, by 23 I was being separated from the Navy due to financial struggles from a divorce, that we're beginning to interfere with my SCI clearance. I have since disregarded any service I have contributed to my countries Navy due to the fact the military is not the proper driving force for World Peace.
When I joined the Navy as a naive young man, I thought I was going into the system of the greatest country of the western hemisphere, what happened when I got there turned into the driving point for my realization of reality. We are all ignorant. Everyone in their own way is ignorant; ignorant to some fact, some knowledge, some reality. Regardless of how much we try to keep up on, or how much we know about the goings on of the world, we have no control over it. We can't change the past, or even the present, but we can change the future. We can contribute to the healing of the world, and that is already happening, through an organization who calls themself The Peace Corps. The Peace Corps as you know extends it's reach to all corners of the world, they are not blinded by local and national media, they do the research and begin solving the problems on their own. They don't wait to get an okay to start helping the world, they leap at the chance to help others. That is what I am doing. I thought joining the United States Navy was how to contribute to the well being of this world. What can I say, I was ignorant. Now I understand that to help this planet you can not go out and tell people what they are going to do, you must ask them what they need. What do you need, I'll give you my piece.
