Harvard

As I looked down at my plane ticket, I realized I was sitting next to Hunter, not Ben. "This should be...interesting." I thought to myself. Hunter had always seemed like a nice guy, but I never really got the vibe that he was fond of me. Well, as cliche comedies go, Hunter began to tease me about the magazine I was reading, and we started talking. To give you the Reader's Digest version, we became the best of friends within four hours. It's funny how a flight can do that to you.

Landing in Boston, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Everyone had told me how horrible the snow would be and how many appendages would acquire frost bite before this week was over. Being a Southerner, I was not exactly looking forward to this...experience. Yet as I looked out the window, I turned to Hunter and said,"What snow?" Even walking out of the airport, we still had spotted no snow of any kind, and my disappointment was beginning to show. "Well i mean it is pretty cold here," Coach Stewart said encouragingly "Maybe it will snow tonight." There was no way I was gonna call forty-five degrees cold, when just that morning back home, we had just reached the slightly chilly twenty-five degrees.

The next morning, Hunter and I finally found snow, and had a very puny but satisfactory snowball fight. The dry-cold was exhilarating, and soon Ben was joining in on our new-found winter entertainment. Coach Stewart and his wife took us all over town, showing us every tourist hot-spot from Cheers to the exact location of the first shot fired at the Boston Massacre (which, oddly, was simply a circular pattern of bricks in the middle of the side walk-no labels or advertisements. We only found it due to our handy map.) At night, however, the "three amigos" (as we had begun to refer to ourselves) were allowed to wander about the streets as long as we stuck together, which was no longer an issue-there was no separating us.

After galavanting across Harvard Square and back, we came to the decision that Boston was a great place to live (Although, upon arriving home, the Coast humidity welcomed me like a mother's warm arms, forever changing my mind.) We returned to the hotel after our little adventures and sit in the hallway between our rooms and share our life stories. We discussed everything from politics to those who had broken our hearts. The three of us talked for hours about the places we had been and the people we had met, and we came to realize that we were all more alike than we had realized before. Although we were there for the Harvard International Debate Tournament, we had more fun getting to know each other and becoming the best of friends.

To this day, when I think of Boston, all those wonderful memories come rushing back to me. As long as I shall live, I will always remember that city as the place I would never forget. It was the place I met my two best friends.

Greed

The problem with today's society is greed. We see it everyday when people refuse to tip the waitress working three jobs and trying to be a good mother, or donating money to a church/charity. It even appears in our politicians. Once they get the official position they desire, they do not listen to anyone's ideas but their own and refuse to work together because they have their own agenda to obtain more power. Yet this is what is tearing our country apart. We have forgotten that it is not "me me me" in America. Our founding fathers would be ashamed of us. The United States was formed by the idea that every human being is equal, and we must work together as one unit to achieve liberty. Greed has become our main focus, blinding us from the need all around us. Everyday children die all over the world in poverty-stricken countries. But how often do we help these voices crying out for aide? Not enough. We simply look the other way because that Prada handbag or brand new car is more important than giving just a minimal amount of our time/money to save a life. So little can change a persons life, we just have to remove that chip off our shoulders and open our eyes and our hearts and extend our hands. We should all feel ashamed that we can pass starving people on the streets and sleep perfectly that night in our comfortable beds. How long will humanity continue this downfall? Until we are the ones without a home? No. Those who have achieved success in life must help those who have fallen get back on their feet again. How is it that something so fleeting and insignificant as money or self-interest be our main priority in life? We must stop investing in material items and begin investing in people. Someone who has spent their life helping those around them in anyway they can will leave this life 100% satisfied. What will we have when we reach the end of the road and everyone has left us alone with nothing but our toys to play with? No one is more worthy than another, and everyone has the right to live the life they want. Greed must be-if not eliminated-greatly reduced in our society or else we all will perish in time, with nothing left behind but some old junk that wasn't worth our time to begin with.