I'll try and make this short and brief. I can ramble on about this topic of worldliness vs. poverty in circles, to the point where I don't even know what I'm saying, I just know what I mean.

I sometimes (ok, often) question why I'm a photographer. Sure, it may help people in a material sense, but it's not feeding a malnourished baby or a child soldier (an extreme example, I know, but this is the degree of extremity I want to help people). I wonder how I can do something so "self-absorbed" when it's not directly saving someones life.

And then I remember that I've been given this passion, this talent, for a reason. It's not selfish of me to be passionate about photography, it's a gift, something I should cherish and something I should nurture. As long as I'm able bodied and able minded, I have the opportunity to change the world and make this world a better place. If it's photography that I've been given, if it's photography that seems to be this mad passion that runs through my every thought and breath, then it's this that I should use to it's full advantage, because it's this that I can use to change the world.

My camera may not literally be the spoon that a malnourished baby takes, but my camera can be the camera that brings awareness or happiness and emotional peace to someone in need, someone wanting to cherish a memory, or someone wanting to learn how to express their feelings and their life through photography.

My point in writing this is that we need to use our talents to their full extent, and not ever take them for granted. We have the ability to change the world, no matter what it is we do. We each give to this ginormous circle of "things the world needs," so let's give this world what we are good at and let's watch this world change.