From the Ignacio Volunteer Program in Kingston, Jamaica, I acquired the concrete evidence that every person on this earth has the ability to leave a positive impression on the world.

Every small touch, every genuine smile, every enthusiastic attitude creates tidal waves of influence.

We are not insignificant to the powerful gears of the world.  We face seemingly helpless conditions that prompt inquiries like, “Why is this happening to this person and not to me?” and “Where is God’s plan?” The answer is these situations exist in order for humanity to share love with one another—share God with one another.

The world is not so vast and uncontrollable that our actions do not matter.  They breathe life into every human being that we choose to exhale on.

One might claim that such groups have come to Jamaica in the past and will come to Jamaica in the future and any particular “helping” hand would have been replaced by another, that this save-the-world mission work is an indulgent activity, that you live your life and someone lives their life without any lasting interaction possible.

But this is not so.

Your unique personality, your specific attitude, the character in which you handle a situation might have been needed at that exact instant by someone else.  The way you sing to an atrophied special needs child might have lifted up a brother, a volunteer nurse or observer’s spirits to motivate their life’s work with a renewed energy.

The earnest questions you pose about the childhood of a woman born in 1919 might have reminded her that she isn’t alone.  The way you pay special attention to a little boy in the burn unit will register in his memory that somebody cares about him and that he is worth something.

I discovered that I am significant in the cosmos.  I discovered that my actions do create something.  I have decided that I must direct my life’s path in such a way that will replicate these acts of love that carry catalyzing power.

Instead of assuming that the stifling expectations of the world require me to carry out the orderly structure of four years of high school, four years of college, two years of graduate school, a career and a family in the suburbs with approximately 2.6 kids, an explosion of space has made a tunnel with a new path excavated and cleared.

I can study abroad for a semester of college and be exposed to learning in another culture.  I can join AmeriCorps after I graduate and be allowed to live simply and serve in my own country.  I can use my earnings on experiences—on plane tickets to locations where I can live cheaply and give more.  I can reach out to the elderly in nursing homes in my own community in New Orleans.  I can join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps or Peace Corps and experience the world while simultaneously emptying myself for others.

The world does not hold me down; the world is mine to hold.  I have the able body, the time and the resources that these people I have served lack.  It is all the more urgent that I must act now—act in love and for love.

Jenna Knoblach is a visual arts junior. She can be reached at

[email protected]

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