The Capacity to Care | Michelle Abban '20

Being at UVA, I realize how easy it is to block ourselves from caring about the outside world. Or it feels like we can only care in comfortable ways for short periods of time. Over the last four years, I have wrestled with what it means to truly care and to allow someone else’s life to affect my own. There is something powerful about caring because before anything can be addressed, we have to understand how people are feeling or ways our actions are affecting people. It involves wrestling with uncomfortable truths and recognizing how we benefit from other people’s pain.

This is a call to all UVA students to stop for a moment and to care. Think about how big the world is and how many bad things are happening. Take time to pray, cry, read, research the things that affect the world. Dig into the deepest part of yourself and try to connect to people who seem completely different from you. Think about how any potential actions you take can affect people you want to help. Listen to people’s stories. Actually check your privilege often. Repeat. 

Then let see how our actions change. If we take this time to care we will be more intentional with our steps and will learn to listen first. We can learn to lead by listening and not by control. Because we are not the center of the world. And if we want to really help people we better get used to being on the periphery.