Life is Good

This is one phrase I have been using a lot lately. How can the phrase not slip from your lips when you are living in one of the most beautiful places in the world, meeting new and interesting people everyday, and experiencing new things on a daily basis? But is this phrase about attitude or reality?

Until tonight, I would have said that it depends on the person. Some people (like me) have had incredibly easy lives. We have had most things handed to us without much fuss. The place we were born, the economic status of our families, and the opportunities available to us made it very easy to acquire a wealth of rich experiences, and I for one, am very thankful for that. However, if my life weren’t so easy, would I still have this positive “life is good” outlook? I’d like to think so, but how can I know?

Tonight was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life. My Community Development class is an interesting mix of people. About half of the class is exchange students who are interested in learning about the social development projects within Brazil. A handful of others are middle to upper class Brazilian students, but the other students have a much more real perspective of these issues. These are mostly people who live in the favelas within Rio and want to learn how to better help their own suffering communities. Most are attending the university through NGO or government scholarships. For the entire two-hour class we were paired up with another student to get to know every aspect of that person, their experiences, and their everyday realities.

I was paired up with a 26 year-old woman named Francilene. She lives with her mom, dad, brother, nephew, and 5-year-old child in a one-room house in Rocinha (the largest favela in Brazil) just down the street from the university. She works for a community health organization within her community where she visits people in their houses to give them vaccinations, medicine, and information on diseases. She is studying at the university through a governmental scholarship and hopes to return to her community to further help the people there.

When it was my turn to talk, I was at a loss for words (and not only because I was struggling to speak in Portuguese). My reality is completely and utterly different than her reality. The opportunities that I have had in my own life to travel, go to school, learn new things, see new places, and live on my own, were literally handed to me on a golden platter. Guilt sunk in as I spoke about my own experiences and I found myself highlighting (and probably exaggerating) the problems within the US of poverty, healthcare, and expensive education.

I walked out of the class almost in tears. My naivety had smacked me square in the face. My perception of the world is a mere sliver of the whole picture. Our attitudes are shaped by our experiences. I praise God that my experiences have been so positive, and I realized I must use these advantages to help those who aren’t so lucky. Life is good but sometimes reality can be brutal.