"We throw away half of what we produce."

I am taking a class this semester called Poverty and Social Welfare. Walking into the hot, student packed classroom, I took a seat in the front. While my professor was handing out syllabuses, I couldn't help but laugh at his mustache, which covered almost his whole mouth. I thought to myself, "how does this man brush his teeth without getting his stache hairs stuck between his teeth?" I was very interested as to what this professor had to say to us on the first day of class. As we went through the normal things like office hours, how to contact him, and assignments, he told us he was going to give us some "content" today. Everyone breathed a heavy sigh, with the hope of getting out early shattered.
He started with a power point discussing things like how Americans are born with a golden spoon in our mouths compared to the rest of the world, and the life expectancy of Americans compared to Ethiopians. (Which is 76 years-Americans, to 48 years-Ethiopians, might I add). The next thing he stated in his lecture, really stuck with me, and really got me thinking. But not so much on the "poverty level" as I'm sure is where he was trying to get at. I read in my head what the power point said next. "We throw away half of what we produce". What does that mean I thought to myself. As the professor was talking about what it meant in the class, my mind wandered, and I thought what does it mean to me?
We as human beings have potential, talents, gifts, and not one of us is like another. We all have something unique to give to this world, but how many of us really fulfill all of our potential? How many of us give all that we are capable of giving? From what I've witnessed in my 20 years of being alive, not many of us, not even myself. So many of us walk around with meaningless things in our lives, where that focus could be positively reflected and used for something meaningful. How about the love that we as human beings have? Some people claim to have cold hearts, or aren't capable of loving, but that is a lie that you choose to believe. Every person has a heart correct? Every person has a brain right? Let's use those things. Let's forget what socitey says. Forget what the social norm is. What your peers think. What do you think should be done in this world full of hate, discrimination, peer pressure and so much more?


"We throw away half of what we produce"
I think that we need to stop wasting what we have, and we need to use all that we have inside of us. I know it's possible. We just need to realize it, and go after it.