I refuse to be another body in the system! I want to be the one starting revolutions and protests! I want to be the one taking the steps to change the world; I will not sit back and do everything asked of me. I will be the one to rise up and speak up against that I feel wrongly about. I will be the one, megaphone in hand, debating with those that hold different ideals than myself. I do not believe that there is a wrong ideal or a wrong view of things because every opinion one holds is an opinion conjured by their own dreams and beliefs and I simply want to spread my voice. “I may be young right now but I swear to god I’m gonna change the world!” This is my life, the only one I have to live. I want to travel to countries and meet people of all cultures, economic statuses, and religious beliefs. I want to take pictures of war zones and of suffering peoples; post them, publish them, upload them, SPREAD THEM everywhere I possibly can just to give people a taste of a system they probably have never viewed. I’m only in High School but I won’t let teachers tell me that I should be solely focused upon my learning to get the best I can from a college education. I have different, bigger plans than their systematic lesson plans that are stacked full of paperwork for student and teacher. Those workbooks cannot share with us the history of our allied countries. A worksheet cannot prove what a Jewish man survived through when his world came crashing down upon his life. A short documentary narrated by someone famous for whatever reason is nowhere near as life changing as being in that location, living that era through the history written in the gold tiles and oil painted canvases. I do what I can to excel in school, and maybe at rare times I am able to surpass any goals laid out far along in my path. I do plan to attend college, get a job, have a family; a normal life. Though, not before I enter the mosque known as the Hagia Sophia, get a glimpse of a chance to live through religions unknown to me, learn several languages that may or may not be of use later in my life, and say something, whether in these typed words or spoken with a pride in myself, that will change someone’s life. Or something that will start a change in this society I am ashamed to be a part of. When I leave, I don’t want to be remembered as someone who sat back and worked toward only what is expected of me. I’m going to break past what others believe I will leave behind, and leave behind a legacy instead. I’m going to be remembered as the girl who sparked some kind of discussion that changed something, as the girl who has shown the world its allies and enemies in a different light than media may show them, as a FBI Profiler who, in my hopes, will have helped caught terrible people who would have damaged this world should they have continued. What will you leave behind?