RIIIIING! 1st period began as normal, with my teacher handing my group an assignment, and someone grabbing their pencil to answer the questions. The sheet was asking questions about current events. My group breezed through the first few before we got stuck on the question, “What country got hit with a magnitude 4.2 earthquake?” I remembered turning on the radio and hearing news of casualties in Afghanistan because of a natural disaster, but the rest of my group looked off with glassy eyes, not having a clue what was happening in countries around the world.
“Being a global citizen honestly just means being involved with things outside the United States,” Social studies teacher Evan Heller said. “Making sure you are up to date with what is going on and making sure you are conscious of other people and what they are going through in different places.”
The exact definition of a global citizen, according to the United Nations is, “the umbrella term for social, political, environmental, and economic actions of globally minded individuals and communities on a worldwide scale.”
I was lucky I turned on the radio to hear about Afghanistan, but there are lots of news stories that aren’t spread as they should be. Nobody in my group is at fault for not knowing about the earthquake, but it was a real eye-opener for me as it made me realize that as high school students, we aren’t involved in global issues as much as we should be.
Being a global citizen doesn’t really seem worth the hype though. Why try to build your knowledge on a topic that doesn’t reflect on you at all? Here's the twist though, all global issues affect you. You might not even realize it, but with the war between Ukraine and Russia, gas prices have increased significantly. The Nepali overthrow of the government is spreading similar ideas of revolution around the world.
“The world is an everything thing,” Grayson Gemmell said. “If you want to build relationships with people, you have to know what they're going through.”
When you decide to become a global citizen, one of the most important things to remember is empathy. If your house was struck with a high magnitude earthquake, would you want people to turn a blind eye, or would you look for those people, those friends, those neighbors to help you rebuild what was knocked down?
It's a challenge to throw yourself out into the news not knowing where to look, but make sure you are finding the right news sources to get your information from. It's important to use unbiased, reliable news sources for your information, and don’t go scrolling on TikTok saying you got all your knowledge from a social media app.
If doing your own research poses too much of a challenge, East offers opportunities to get involved in national and global news with your peers. Just this school year, two new clubs have formed to take on the challenge of combatting these issues with uniformed students. The Young Dems club and The Civic Engagement club are both completely open and accepting of new members. They both strive toward keeping teens at East involved in current events and news topics.
The term of being a global citizen means something different to everyone, but the main point to remember is we as a planet make up one world that needs to be interconnected, and we need to take care of one another even if the problem doesn’t pertain to you, put yourself in their shoes and understand how you would feel in their situation. Become the person who cares about the world.
