rachel

In the past year of my life a lot of my goals have changed. Things that once interested me, now disgust me. And the friends I used to hang out with are now totally my opposites. I have different priorities now, ones that I think are a lot more real than those of the past. While on my mission to achieve my goals and better the world, I have been told by some of those, who were once close to me, that one person can not make a difference. That I can not change the world. They�ve told me that I shouldn�t waste my time. My dreams do not matter. I cannot believe them.

How can living in a sound world not matter? How can anyone just shrug off the pollution of our waters and skies or the destruction of the last remaining wilderness? The people that were once my close friends tell me that I am not supposed to worry about stuff like this. It�s not normal.

What am I supposed to do? Give up doing what is right, what my conscious won�t let me ignore, for a world filled with lipstick and Old Navy jeans? I will not believe them.
Through opposition and struggles against different ways of thinking, I�ve tried to find people who have made a difference. Those who have changed the world. I do believe that the world is changed for the better by single individuals, even if they are only influencing the life of one person.

I can think of several individuals who have directly influenced my life. Who have changed me for the better. I can not let the pessimistic people of this world tell me that my heroes have not made a difference. They have, and not only in my life, but in the lives of others around them.

In my search of even more people who have changed this world, on an even larger scale, I have found individuals that deserve recognition. People like Martin Luther King, Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold; the list goes on. They all expressed their thoughts and helped change the way people viewed the world, both social and natural.
And now on my list is the name of a woman who faced fierce opposition and ridicule to stop a problem that threatened the lives of every living thing, alive and unborn, in this world. Her name is Rachel Louise Carson. Her testament, Silent Spring. According to many she changed the way people viewed and treated the natural world, just by writing what has been called one of the most influential books of all time. She has been called, by many of her admirers, the mother of the modern environmental movement. As I read the words of Silent Spring, I can only fear what my life and the world would be like if she did not stand up and confront a horrendous problem. She was one person that did one thing that changed the world.

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This paper was written by Crystalmichelle Louise Brown.