Cambridge Common

How amazing was HarvAid tonight? I am inspired. Particularly by Kuumba's ending to the night--there is something about a group of people united, doing one thing together, moving as a whole that is so compelling. It made me think of the power of a shared cause, and the amazing things that Harvard students manage to achieve in their short time here. Harvard is the place to dream big, and the place where even the most impossible things become so close to possible that they are possible. Like Evening With Champions, for example. I was talking to my blockmate about this, and how huge the event is. They raise like $30,000 for the Jimmy fund every year, and in the real world, organizing an event like that is someone's full-time job. But here, people do things like that on top of school. Every hour of our 24 hours a day are hours that we could be doing something, hours that we could tap into. The feeling like saving the world is so close, so possible for us that we find ourselves confronted by a desire to save the world in every way that becomes almost inescapable. The greatest danger here is that instead of focusing and devoting to one cause that speaks most strongly to our beliefs, we might spread ourselves too thin, overcommit and become unable to do justice to our causes. I struggle always with the anxiety that I am not doing enough, that I could be doing more, that I should be doing more. But for every gain there is a loss, and for every new thing I devote my time to, something else loses out. And it's a continual struggle to remember that I can't change the world in every direction, and by trying I might not change anything at all.