Responsible citizenship as we know it is centered on actions. We get caught up in the “what,” that we neglect the “why.” Michael Scott (the author) said, “We are nothing more than the sum of our memories and experiences.” This is what I call our Human Formula. Realizing this, it is not a surprise that people do what they do. If our background was every life experience and memory as another person, we would be the exact same as them.

Crime, bullying, racism; we worry and respond to these actions, to the “what.” We are simply treating with Band-Aids and never vaccines. We must see the scope of our experiences.  We are friends with those of similar “equations,” but fear the summation of others’.  The world is not separated into democrat/republican, criminal/victim, and enemy/friend. We are all simply the summation of our individual “equations.” Numerically, it makes sense that 1+1=2 and 2+2=4; but we neglect that our pasts are our own variables equating who we are.

The only way to alter another’s equation is to introduce a new variable.  A single experience may be all it takes to alter someone’s “equation,” for the better, or the worse.  We do not see the significance of something as we type into a calculator; it is when we hit “enter” that we see the difference. The same is true for us.  So go and change the world, ask questions, smile, help others, and maybe you’ll be surprised the next time you hit “enter.”

Next essay: Kyle Cochran ’13 – Tolerant time travel
TEDx at TCU – “What does responsible citizenship look like?”