Alive
By Sarah, age 18, Pennsylvania
Sweet Designs Featured Writer
One of my favorite songs is by Payable Over Death (P.O.D.). The song is called "Alive". It's one of the songs that just makes so much sense to me. Here are some of the lyrics:
Every day is a new dayI find this song relaxing. It makes me step back and just breathe deeply and think about how lucky I am. Every single day goes by and we breathe, yet we rarely ever stop to think about how complicated our body is and how much it takes to take a single breath. We take everything for granted and we are so selfish. I'm realizing that, as much as I had to work when I was younger, I also had tons of stuff handed to me on a silver platter.
I'm thankful for every breath I take
I won't take you for granted,
So I learn from my mistakes
It's beyond my control
Sometimes it's best to let go
Whatever happens in this lifetime
So I trust in love, you have given me peace of mind.
I once went on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic. A gorgeous place, and I would go back in a heartbeat, but being there makes you realize how special you are. There are tons of kids in orphanages because their parents died or just can't take care of them. People living in mud huts and people dying of diseases. We have doctors, people to take care of us. We have brick homes and are safe and warm in them. We have so many opportunities in America and other countries that we are letting fly by us. We need to grab life by the horns, people.
When I came home from that missions trip I was so set to change the way I lived. I was ready to give stuff up for the poor and to help people in any way possible. The chorus of that song goes well here. "I feel so alive, for the very first time. I can't deny you, I feel so alive. I feel so alive, for the very first time. And I think I can fly." Those words describe the "spiritual high" I was on. I was so ready to do whatever it took to fix all the world's problems. And I felt incredible. I had never felt so good about my life before. I felt like I was doing something for my community and like I was going to change the world.
Soon after I got home though, I got back into the swing of things and kind of got lost again into this material world. I was back into my cell phone 24/7 and my laptop was always with me. I forgot about my goal to "change the world". I had been on such a high, but then I came back to the U.S. and I forgot about my "spiritual high". I forgot about living right and helping people. I went back to only helping my friends and myself. It was kind of like those commercials where you see the little children - poor, hungry, and in need of schooling. All they ask for is a quarter donation, and yet we are guilty of flipping the channel. It was like I flipped the channel of my feelings and simply forgot about the change of heart I had in the D.R. and about everything I had seen while I was there.
But the other day I got out those pictures and I started to feel ashamed. My world is so corrupt that I'd barely lasted two days on that "high". I looked into the faces of those children and I felt sorrow and disappointment in myself. I had wanted to help them, and yet the second I got back home I'd forgotten all about them.
But now ... now I am confident that I can do something for them. I have found that "high" again, but this time it's going to last a lot longer. It's no longer a "high". It's a motive, and I will help them in some way. After going through those pictures I felt so good, and it's like the last verse of the song:
Sunshine upon my face, a new song for me to sing
Tell the world how I feel inside, even though it might cost me everything
Now that I know this so beyond, I can't hold this, I can never turn my back away
Now that I've seen you I can never look away.
