“Yesterday, I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself,” Jalaluddin Rumi.

Ryan Johnson (Junior) and his quest to change the world starts by changing himself first:

In the summer of 2016, Ryan, along with his youth group (Family in Christ Church, located in Westminster), arrived in Benque Viejo Del Carmen, Belize for a week-long mission trip. He only had one goal in mind: to spread love and joy in the name of his savior, Jesus Christ. Every day, Ryan woke up early to help with service projects. He built bunk beds for those in need, he participated in local food distribution and he assisted with a vacation bible school for 80 of Benque’s children. Ryan also led the local church in worship on his ukulele and had the opportunity and the honor of baptizing two kids in the Caribbean Sea.

Ryan Johnson (third from the left), youth group member, and locals enjoying some fun together after working in the city.

One day during his trip, Ryan and his youth group delivered a bunk bed to a woman named Maria and her children. As they brought the frame and drill into the humble home — built from cardboard, a single post and string, which physically held the house together — “their faces lit up with this immense amount of joy,” said Ryan. Even though it was something as simple as a bunk bed, something that most people would take for granted, it was something so much more to them. It was a symbol. A symbol of hope and of belonging. “They were the most content people that I had ever seen in my entire life. They found joy in something that I take for granted. They lived in a manner that they had more than I did. And in a way, they did have more,” said Ryan. “They had more than I did even though they had so much less. It was like their souls were so pure and so beautiful, so full and so lively. They were filled with a sense of contentment and an endless amount of happiness. And I want to take that contentment and that simplicity that I learned from them and I want to replicate it here.”

A study in 2009 revealed that about 30-40% of Belize’s population was impoverished. That means 30-40% of their population struggles to put food on their tables. That means 30-40% of their population is unable to have a house, to have a place to call home. The majority of people that fall into that category are uneducated and most lack technical and vocational skills. “Isn’t it so crazy to think that many of us have everything that we will ever need and so much more? Yet, sometimes, it’s almost so hard for us to be happy with our lives — to be happy with ourselves,” said Ryan. “We are always chasing the next thing and we are never content with what we have. We have a safe roof over our heads and a safe house to live in, while people live in small, beat-down shacks, made out of rotting cardboard and wood, string, and posts. We have clean water to drink out of a faucet; many people are not blessed with that gift. We have abundant grocery stores, with an abundant amount of food, while their grocery stores are minimum, small, and limited. We have access to an unlimited amount of transportation, while they have to walk most places because they can barely afford to ride on a bus. We have all of these things, yet, we desire more.”

We are so blessed with everything that we have. But, sometimes, we let the undeniable stress associated with high school build up and blind us. Making it so, so easy to forget about the endless amounts of beauty in this world, we forget that the love that we can show towards others —  the compassion that we can show towards others — is, in itself, the ability to change the world. Every night, Ryan tries to write a letter to somebody at the high school, in attempt to get a letter to every single person in the junior grade by the end of this year. So every night, he writes to somebody new, in hopes to provoke a smile, or tears — any type of emotion really. He wants them to know how special and how amazing they truly are. That they aren’t taken for granted and that they are appreciated no matter what. These letters usually take him about an hour and a half to write. Sometimes, he writes letters instead of working on homework, because he believes that “homework and grades do not define who we are as people. And that instead, the compassion that we can show; even in the little things we do: like holding the door for people as they come inside, or saying ‘hi’ to a more reserved person in the hall. That is all we have to do to make this world a better place to live in.”

For every letter that Ryan rights, he leaves his favorite quote embedded within. The quote is from a girl, namely Rachel Joy Scott, a Christian, who was shot and killed in Columbine. Her story is told through the movie I’m Not Ashamed and was the very inspiration for Ryan to start writing letters. The quote is as followed: “I have this theory that if one person will go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same.” Maybe there is something that we can take away from Ryan’s story. Maybe we don’t have to be as involved as he is, or as compassionate as he is — but if we can take the time every day to show some form of kindness, even the most nominal form of kindness, maybe that is enough to change the world.