Around Us
(Original)

Park Jungmin
(Age 15, South Korea)
Korean Minjok Leadership Academy

I once read a story about a person giving Macdonald’s lunch to panhandlers every Thursday. This short story, called ‘No Small Act of Kindness’, is from the book, Chicken Soup for the Soul. One day, a panhandler thanks him for giving his daughter a chance to eat Macdonald’s and he “recognizes the truth of Mother Teresa’s words; “We cannot do great things- only small things with great love.””

Many people believe only big things help the society. However, changes in the environment actually come from small things, starting from the neighbors around us because the many different kinds of problems a community faces, these days, including social, cultural, environmental, economical problems, all come from little or no relationships in a community. Thus, knowing and loving one’s neighborhood should be the goal in fostering sustainable development in a community. I plan to use Internet, which is inseparable and easily accessible to all people to achieve the goal. The following is an Internet site of my imagination.

With the name “Around Us,” this Internet site’s motto is ‘small things with great love’ (word from Mother Teresa). The main page of “Around Us” is decorated by a short story that I actually experienced a few weeks ago.

A few days ago, I got on the elevator of my apartment with a man who did not push the button of the floor he was going to get off. Terribly nervous, I got off the elevator and when the door of the elevator closed, leaving the strange man inside, I heaved a sign of relief. I watched the elevator go down and stop at the sixth floor which I presumed he got off at. Few days later, a notice on a robber was held, cautioning and asking for any recent suspicious incidents. I reported the strange man I met in the elevator. So when I realized that there was a mentally handicapped person living on the sixth floor of my apartment and the man whom I met in the elevator was him, I was embarrassed and at the same time, shocked. I learned that for some reasons, he always made concessions in the elevator by waiting for other people to get off first. This is merely one typical incident that represents our community.

At the bottom of this story, there are letters “Welcome” and a click on it takes the user to each community’s own Internet site, owned by the community members. There are three menus on the community’s own Internet site: “Helping,” “Sharing,” and “Complimenting.”

The first menu, “Helping” is a page for people to actually help each other. There are various ways people help within this menu; they can exchange unnecessary goods for their needs, ask for a hand, and provide volunteer work. The latest writing on the board was written by a mother who had suddenly been arranged for an appointment. She asked for a babysitter available right at this hour and received replies from community members online. Like this occasion, people easily fulfill their needs using this page.

Below “Helping” menu, there is “Sharing” menu. This menu has two submenus, “Information,” and “Pictures.” The information contains just about anything from gossips, jokes, daily news to political issues that can actually affect our community. People recommend books and debates on the candidates of the last election through this page. The other submenu, “Pictures” contains photos and short notes of self-introduction of the community members. People find it interesting to learn about their neighbors. Sharing information builds a sense of a belonging and friendliness among the neighborhood and sharing pictures, especially of themselves, help people get to know each other better.

“Complimenting” is the last menu on the page. The board under this menu is filled with writings and most of them have the same title, ‘Thank you.’ This page is a place for people to write warm stories that happened that day and praise those who spread a lot of warmness. One high school student wrote that a person sitting on the next table helped him clean the drink he spilt. He also wrote that he didn’t thank the person enough in face so he wants to thank him, again. People complimented feel proud and other neighbors are also motivated to help other people. People, moved by heartwarming stories, learn to be thankful for small things and practice small things themselves.