Freshman year of college I was in a philosophy class and I was giving some sort of group presentation. The prof asked my group “what do you think is your purpose in life?” And none of them really had an answer while I just said “to make the world a better place for those who come after us” because in my mind that’s just the obvious answer. The prof looked kind of taken aback that I just had an answer on the ready and was like “Why? What’s your motivation?”
In that moment I realized I was in front of a lecture hall of privileged students. I was surrounded by people who didn’t know poverty or desperation like I had. I clawed my way here on scholarships while they were legacy kids or trust fund babies. In that moment it clicked in my head that there’s this level of empathy that you can only gain when you have absolutely nothing to lose. A level of empathy that only the impoverished have. A level of empathy that screams out that you have to fight to make things better even if it doesn’t benefit you. It’s a concept that you can only really grasp when you have nothing to lose and the kids before me hadn’t known that pain. They hadn’t developed that kind of empathy.
My only answer that I could give the prof was “Why wouldn’t I?”
A level of empathy that screams out that you have to fight to make things better even if it doesn’t benefit you.
