When I was little, I wanted to save the world. My favorite heroine was Sailor Moon because she was a beautiful, self sacrificing champion of justice with a good heart. I’ve always wanted to be like that and even as a 22 year old, I am still that child at heart; wanting to save the world and make all my friends smile. All my life I’ve always wanted to help people. However, as I grew up I realized that I can’t save the world. Maybe a few people, but not the world. But to be honest, I still want to. My art, my writing, my volunteer work and my actions are the way I break free; the way I help set others free. I can’t save everyone but I can do this. I’ve used this as an example: Say you are trying to light up a big room with a candle. The world is the room and you are the candle, struggling to spread light. The room will still be largely underlit. You realize how immense and dark the world can be. But if you light a small room with that same candle, it can illuminate everything. You can change small things slowly and work your way up. That’s how I started to think about world service. That’s how I started to think about life. Work on the world one mission at a time; work on myself one day at a time. Or “focus on the life in front of me” as one of my heroes, Somaly Mam has said. I love life and I would never want to waste this great opportunity to be a part of something so beautiful and so much bigger than myself.