I went to the library yesterday at school and I had to take out an article that was on reserve. I got it from the service counter, took it upstairs and read it. These items that are on reserve are only allowed to be booked out for 2 hours at a time. I was done reading the article in about an hour but was feeling too lazy to have to walk downstairs and return it.
The folder that the article came in clearly stated that if I didn’t bring it back within two hours I would have to pay $1 for every hour that it was late. I had to leave for my next class about 30 minutes after the article was due, so I knew I would only have to pay $1 for the fee. I decided to stay idle and just return it late; besides, I had a dollar in my pocket that I could use.
When it was time to leave for class, I packed up my stuff and headed downstairs. I returned the article and they saw that I needed to pay my dollar. I reached into my pocket and grabbed the coin. However, as I handed the dollar to the person behind the counter, I became overcome with guilt. At that point I remembered that over 1 billion people in our world live on less than one dollar per day. As I watched the person take my dollar over to the cash register, I realized that while I purposely gave up a dollar just because I was too lazy to walk down a flight of stairs, a billion other people around the world struggle daily to survive on only that amount.
Needless to say, I have been pretty upset with myself for doing this. Not because I didn’t donate that dollar to a good cause, but because I took advantage of my ability to throw a dollar away without giving it a second thought. It’s very easy to take advantage of what we’ve got and to complain about what we don’t have… until we realize how advantaged we really are.
Poverty Facts, Poverty Maps/Graphics
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