All this change

How could all this crap fit in one dorm room?

Let me explain. This week, I’ve begun packing up my belongings. It’s not because I’m particularly ready to leave Bloomington for the summer. In fact, I rather like it here. I just needed something to distract me from studying for exams and writing final papers (I can only take so much Elizabethan poetry).

As I began to go through my room, I was not prepared for what I would find. During my nine months here, I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff.

There are sweaters and hoodies, and of course, I had to buy a pea coat and scarf to fit in with my fellow English majors. There are drawers full of DVDs, and since I’ve moved here, my iTunes library has grown by 3.2 gigabytes. In my cabinets I have 17 Easy Macs, 18 applesauce cups, two canisters of Pringles and a box of doughnuts. This past week, I charged $155.54 to my credit card.

I definitely have all the stuff I’ll ever need.

I always complain about what I don’t have, and I always describe myself as a “poor” college student. But packing up all this junk made me realize I’m not that poor.

As I was cleaning, I gathered $13.04 in change while 1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day. I have two power strips – a total of 17 outlets – in my room while 1.6 billion people live without electricity. There’s a bottle of Tylenol and a box of Mucinex (the standard prescription from the IU Health Center) in my desk drawer. Approximately, 2.2 million children die each year because they do not have access to immunization.

And it doesn’t stop there.

My shower caddy is overflowing; two bottles of shampoo, a bar of soap, two brushes, shaving cream, a razor and a toothbrush. About 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation. In my fridge, there are two bottles of water and a Brita pitcher. I worry about being adequately hydrated while 1.1 billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water. When it is all said and done, I’ve boxed up 49 books to take home. Almost one billion people worldwide entered the twenty-first century unable to read or sign their name.

And I complain about two final exams in one day?

I’ve got it pretty good. Truthfully, I’m swimming in wealth. (I never thought I’d say that about Teter.) From the screened windows to the showers with lukewarm water, there’s so much here.  
And I move back to a home with even more, to a summer job with good hours and great pay and to a lifestyle of extreme comfort.

I can’t even grasp the extent of my richness. On this vast campus, brimming with service organizations, sobering statistics of world poverty are tossed around and publicized daily as students are encouraged to ‘make a change.’

I thought I was, but now it seems like most of my change in the world is sitting in a Buffa Louie’s cup.