It has been told a million ways: the Golden Rule, love thy neighbor, do unto others as you would have others unto to you, etc.

Although we have been taught this since we first started engaging with others, society tends to forget these words. Each person is different, and yet, we are creating differences which do not exist. In biology, you learn about domains, kingdoms, phyla, classes, orders, families, genuses, and species. There is no such thing as race. Race is distinguished by how much UV radiation a person’s ancestors were exposed to. We are more alike than we are different. In America alone, you hear that a young black man is more violent than a white woman. I don’t believe that is true; put people in the same stress-filled situation and they go back to their animalistic response of either fight or flight.

The golden rule applies to much more than race, though. Religion should not be a gap between people either. As an American society, we are told to fear Muslims who come from Arabic descent. In reality, they want to come to America to have the freedoms we promise to our citizens. Humanity, in general, has a tendency to show aggression towards those we do not understand. My question is, why? Why do we greet people with guns instead of food? Why are we always weary of the stranger? If you think about every person you are friends with, you'll realize that, at one point, you were strangers. You did not know who they were, what kind of beliefs they held, where they had been before you came into their life. Yet you decided to allow them into your life anyway. You told them your secrets, went to Whataburger at three a.m. with them, etc.

Studies show we are likely to befriend those who are most similar to ourselves. Even though we allow others into our life, we make a subconscious decision to keep those like us close to us. In our population, shouldn’t we be more tolerant of those who are different? All Americans, except the indigenous people, chose to leave where they came from to get a chance to be a part of a better society. We are constantly told to be kind to others, but how many people are actually kind to others? How many times a week do you go out of your way to help someone? How much do you give up helping out our society? We tend to do more judging of each other than building up of others.

I know plenty of people who treat their dog better than a person on the street. I feel that if we told everyone they can achieve the most, we would live in a better world. What if you told a black teenage boy who comes from the projects, that he could have an education, family, and a good job? What if you helped him achieve that? What if he made something of himself? What if you told the pregnant girl in rural America that she will still be successful? What if you helped her so she could get her college diploma? We need to stop worrying about how we can get ourselves ahead, and start helping the world get to be a better place.

One person cannot change the world, but they can change someone’s world. You can change someone’s world.