Serious stuff
If you care about US politics and don’t live in the US you’re not actually thinking on an international scale. If you’re going to care about immigration issues in the USA, then you should care about the reason Hondurans are willing to travel through several countries on foot to reach “the land of the free”. You should also care about human rights violations in Libya, human trafficking from China to all over the world, child labour in Indonesia, China and several other countries. If you’re going to the think internationally, think GLOBALLY. That means ALL OF IT. Be informed, make informed economic decisions, for the benefit of all.
Of course, it’s impossible to focus your energy on all these issues at once, but pick one you can make a difference in.
Help the poor and the beaten by volunteering to provide meals and services locally. It helps the economy by increasing potential employment, increasing tax dollars for your government to spend on solving humanitarian crises globally.
If you plan on becoming a doctor, consider being a Doctor without Borders, work with people facing epidemics, improve people’s quality of life.
If you’re an artist, use your work to stand up for free speech, tackle the problems you’re most passionate about. You could open the eyes of someone ignorant to big problems. The rest of the media might not have told them about it, but you could.
If you’re an engineer, you could work on ways to provide sturdy housing at low cost to impoverished communities. If their tent could blow away at any moment, it is not shelter, and it is not helping them achieve their basic needs.
These are just a few ways you can help others on a big scale, now don’t let these goals take over your life. If your friend is having a depressive episode, put down the drawings, put away the calculator, step away from the kitchen. They need help, just like the rest. The severity of pain does not change whether or not it is pain.
Do the little, strive for the big.