Changing the world

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world. ~Author Unknown

Much of my posts lately have been about change. Life changing before me, mainly. Last week, I wrote about taking a chance and creating change. After that post, I met Ms. Connie Howard.

For a little while now, we in the newspaper office had been throwing around the idea of profiling Howard and how we wanted to do a feature on her. So, I volunteered to write the piece, thinking it would work for internship credit as well.

Howard was recently awarded the National Death Educator of the Year. At first, I didn't know much about her other than the fact that she teaches the Death and Dying course at UC. However, as I soon found out, she is much more than meets the eye.

For starters, Howard's work in helping educate people about death goes beyond the classroom. She meets with high school students to talk about teen suicide prevention, she co-founded a support group in London to help those suffering from the loss of a friend or family member, she takes groups on "therapeutic hikes" to help them relate their suffering to things they see in nature, and while doing all this, she is earning her doctorate in psychology.

Howard does all because she herself was once grieving. Instead of dwelling in that, she chose to understand the illness and how to help people through it. And she has been changing the world ever since.

Now, she is an inspiration and a great example of how, by simply trying to look beyond ourselves, we can change the world. She simply educated herself and, with that education, has been able to educate so many others on how to deal with their losses.

She is one woman, who has been working in her community and helping others. For this, she recieved national recognition, which she said was a major shock. However, the only change it seems to have made is fill her already full schedule. She remains grounded, which is something so many of us seem to struggle with.

"I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing," Howard said.

This week, I see the product of making a change in the world. Creating a change in ourselves ultimately creates a change in the world. She educated herself, and turned that into helping others.

So for the optimists, don't give up. To paraphrase Howard, just keep doing what you're doing. Everything you do is helping your world more than you know.