Rafael Rodrigo Pereira Gonçalves Gregório Peres, Grade 11
UWC-USA
I was a five-year-old kid seated on the new wood table looking out the window, avoiding to look at the dish. On that porcelain piece, there was some green Broccoli, boiled potatoes, and a fish. I did not want to eat it, but my mom kept saying things like “eat everything because other children are starving”- those words made me confused - how can people be starving if everyone around me is fine? I saw some images of children starving but I never really “saw” them. Are they real? Should I worry about them? And if so, Is there a point in doing it?. Besides all of these questions, that sentence always worked to make me eat, but for some reason, this was the only time when the poverty seemed to echo in my life.
Time had passed, I grew up and I arrived in the 10th grade. In my country, we chose the main area to study, and mine was Socio-economic-sciences - We used to talk about several fascinating topics, and one day we talked about the responsibility of the consumer. At this part of the syllabus, we were exposed to the exploitation that the majority of brands do in developing countries (where typically those starving people that I used to hear about are) to reduce the price of their products. This particular class was mind-blowing for me, not because I was unaware of it but due to the scale of this practice that sometimes seems like slavery, and to make it worse, this seemed to be worldwide accepted by brands and customers. “In which type of hypocritical world are we living?” I got it; poverty is an unpleasant topic, it’s like a snake I would say. Rare are the people that like her, several are the people that try to kill her, but everyone likes to receive the medicines that she produces. This made me change consuming patrons, but just for a month - In the end, I was as hypocritical as the others. The spotlight of privilege is always blinding us. Why is it so difficult to turn it off?
One day, the teacher that told me about the issue of the “economy of exploitation” told me about UWC «. I applied, I got in, and some months later I was in a Castle in the United States. I was in UWC-USA, a place that is more than a school, it is a place where magical things happen. Here I found the switch of my spotlight. His name is Pedro. Pedro is a passionate boy, activist, and extremely aware of the world that surrounds him; a student that knows how a peaceful and sustainable future should look like. We became best friends on campus. We did a lot together, and during our long midnight conversations, he was always talking about social issues. In summary, he is the type of person that is meanwhile driving instead of ignoring the snake that is on the road trying to cross it he chooses to stop the car to help her crossing, walking side by side with her, all the way done until she finds a secure place to stay. He is definitely very different from the people that I met before, and this definitely had an impact on me.
In March, I went back to Portugal due to CoronaVirus, and some weeks ago, I argued with a friend from there due to the shoes that he/she was thinking about buying. On-campus, Pedro told me about how those popular shoes are being produced using exploitative work in some world regions, also in his homeland. This was the first time that I heard from the ones that suffer from my once inconsequential and selfish decisions as a consumer guided by trends and not by conscience. Seeing the worry and pain in their eyes was like a shot of guilt that moved my privileged spotlight, now I am much more aware of what surrounds me, of how daily consumption, apparently innocent, can have serious repercussions on other lives. I had an intense argument about shoes, for my past me shoes were not a big deal for me to worry about, but UWC gave me the chance to meet Pedro and others like him that opened my perspectives, changed my own life philosophy, they taught me to see what is farther beyond this superficial world, they taught me to valorize everything, even that small pair of shoes.
The Power of UWC is all about those people very different from you, those who end up crossing your path to embright what was being shadowed by your own light. I met people with the struggles that I always heard about but were very distant from my peaceful bubble on the west edge of Europe. I have faced stories of harassment, slavery, and war - I encountered realities that for me, seemed to be out of a fiction movie. UWC-USA is just like Hollywood; we are in the United States, we have love and sorrow, action and drama, life-changing views and principally, life-changing characters of a worldwide cast able to break the pillars of what you are and what you want to be. It’s nice to live in a blockbuster.
Thank you, Pedro, thank you UWC.
(a special appreciation to Judy that helped me with this work)
Time had passed, I grew up and I arrived in the 10th grade. In my country, we chose the main area to study, and mine was Socio-economic-sciences - We used to talk about several fascinating topics, and one day we talked about the responsibility of the consumer. At this part of the syllabus, we were exposed to the exploitation that the majority of brands do in developing countries (where typically those starving people that I used to hear about are) to reduce the price of their products. This particular class was mind-blowing for me, not because I was unaware of it but due to the scale of this practice that sometimes seems like slavery, and to make it worse, this seemed to be worldwide accepted by brands and customers. “In which type of hypocritical world are we living?” I got it; poverty is an unpleasant topic, it’s like a snake I would say. Rare are the people that like her, several are the people that try to kill her, but everyone likes to receive the medicines that she produces. This made me change consuming patrons, but just for a month - In the end, I was as hypocritical as the others. The spotlight of privilege is always blinding us. Why is it so difficult to turn it off?
One day, the teacher that told me about the issue of the “economy of exploitation” told me about UWC «. I applied, I got in, and some months later I was in a Castle in the United States. I was in UWC-USA, a place that is more than a school, it is a place where magical things happen. Here I found the switch of my spotlight. His name is Pedro. Pedro is a passionate boy, activist, and extremely aware of the world that surrounds him; a student that knows how a peaceful and sustainable future should look like. We became best friends on campus. We did a lot together, and during our long midnight conversations, he was always talking about social issues. In summary, he is the type of person that is meanwhile driving instead of ignoring the snake that is on the road trying to cross it he chooses to stop the car to help her crossing, walking side by side with her, all the way done until she finds a secure place to stay. He is definitely very different from the people that I met before, and this definitely had an impact on me.
In March, I went back to Portugal due to CoronaVirus, and some weeks ago, I argued with a friend from there due to the shoes that he/she was thinking about buying. On-campus, Pedro told me about how those popular shoes are being produced using exploitative work in some world regions, also in his homeland. This was the first time that I heard from the ones that suffer from my once inconsequential and selfish decisions as a consumer guided by trends and not by conscience. Seeing the worry and pain in their eyes was like a shot of guilt that moved my privileged spotlight, now I am much more aware of what surrounds me, of how daily consumption, apparently innocent, can have serious repercussions on other lives. I had an intense argument about shoes, for my past me shoes were not a big deal for me to worry about, but UWC gave me the chance to meet Pedro and others like him that opened my perspectives, changed my own life philosophy, they taught me to see what is farther beyond this superficial world, they taught me to valorize everything, even that small pair of shoes.
The Power of UWC is all about those people very different from you, those who end up crossing your path to embright what was being shadowed by your own light. I met people with the struggles that I always heard about but were very distant from my peaceful bubble on the west edge of Europe. I have faced stories of harassment, slavery, and war - I encountered realities that for me, seemed to be out of a fiction movie. UWC-USA is just like Hollywood; we are in the United States, we have love and sorrow, action and drama, life-changing views and principally, life-changing characters of a worldwide cast able to break the pillars of what you are and what you want to be. It’s nice to live in a blockbuster.
Thank you, Pedro, thank you UWC.
(a special appreciation to Judy that helped me with this work)
www.unitedworldwide.co