It is frequently said that the small things in life make it the most enjoyable. As I go through my first semester of college, I am coming to this exact realization. Between a full class schedule, a full workload, and adjusting to this new lifestyle, I am finding it hard to find time to enjoy life. It is the little things now that keep many students, including myself, going. So when I opened the student newspaper, the Argo, last week and discovered an advertisement for “Sweet Tooth Day,” my day was made. It was precisely 1:58 in the afternoon when I came upon this piece of information, and I happened to be sitting across from where it was being set up in the Campus Center for 2 o’clock. As my friend and I walked across the room, our eyes gazed upon such a beautiful sight: a candy cart. The popularity of this Stockton sponsored cart quickly grew into the form of a long line of sweet-toothed students. As my friend and I had our turn at the cart, I knew it was going to be a good day after all. There were choices of rock candy, nerds, jolly ranchers, skittles, sweet tarts, and many others. That day was a stressful day, but I was able to forget about the stress for a blissful few minutes filled with sugar. This small event had made a big difference in my day, and the days of those who joined me. Small Stockton events like this make a huge difference in the students’ lives, and they are important reminders of the little things in life that make it enjoyable.

When Hurricane Sandy hit about this time last year, nearly everyone in New Jersey was effected in one way or another. I remember it was just around the time of the USSBA marching band state championships. Many schools dropped out that competition because their schools and the students attending the schools suffered greatly from the storm. The damage covered South to North Jersey. But, the coastal areas suffered the most. I realized the extent of coastal damage when I went to visit Ortley Beach near Toms River in April of this year. More than six months later, the town was still torn to shreds. Houses were collapsed in on each other and debris still littered the streets. Now, almost a year later in Atlantic City, I got to see more damage first hand with the Stockton Day of Service. Our mission in this year’s day of service was to rebuild the dunes along Maine Street in Atlantic City. And, the damage was not pretty. There were empty lots surrounding the washed away dunes where high end houses were previously standing. Where the houses were still standing, the garage doors were covered over with plywood. Townhouses right on the water’s edge were brick shells, and many other bricks littered the sand around them. But what really struck me was the concrete skeleton of the collapsed and missing boardwalk. This area was hit hard.

During the course of our day, forty-some students and I planted 2,000 dune grass plants, cleared the sand of big chunks of debris, and removed sand from the street. This would hopefully rebuild the sand dune ecosystem in that area and help keep sand in place next to the bulkhead lining the shore. This was the first small step to reviving that area. But, the impact was immediate. We were greeted by the security officers working in the resort next to where we were working. They thanked us profusely and said that what we were doing meant so much to them. Hearing those words made everyone appreciate what we were doing so much more. Later in the day, I had the privilege of talking to an AC municipal worker who was assigned to supervise us. He had grown up in Atlantic City and seen it go through many storms. Hurricane Sandy seemed to effect him the most. He told that when the storm hit, the street we were on was flooded six feet high with mattresses and wood floating by. Houses were completely washed out. He said he saw the boardwalk floating by. This man had to watch his home be torn apart. And, here we are nearly a year later trying to sort through the mess. Things like these do not go away overnight, though they may fade from our thoughts when we are not presented with the problem everyday. Doing a small thing like rebuilding a dune really opened my eyes to see the bigger problem, but it also showed me that that small thing can make a big difference to someone living with this problem everyday.

We are living in a time like no other. Through the hardships and efforts of our previous generations, we have come so far in the areas of civil rights and equality. However, there is still more to do globally and nationally. We as a world community have not yet achieved true equality between men and women in the areas of civil liberties and acceptance. By attending the “Girl Rising” film showing and panel discussion, I was able to get different perspective on the position of women on a global level. The film took the viewers through the lives of real girls growing up in a global community that does not yet fully accept them. The story of a girl struggling to free herself from the kumlari life as a slave, the story of two girls. each fighting for her education in their respective countries of Ethiopia and Peru, and the story of a girl fighting off the advances of an older man in a Middle Eastern country all tell of girls fighting for their chance of equality and acceptance in their lives. Each girl in the film is going through the plight of fighting for her education, for her own rights, for her own future. In watching this, I came to understand that an education is a means to equality for these girls, and it only takes one of them to start a revolution.

In the panel discussion, we discussed the struggle of all of these girls and the girls like them all around the world. In many countries, it is not a priority to educate the girls in each family, but a priority to marry them off sometimes at the age of 2. The discussion then turned to the struggle for equality and acceptance for women in America. Women do not earn as much as men in the professional work world, women face discrimination in typically male dominated field such as math and science from the time of elementary school, and women are still fighting everyday to eliminate those facts. I learned, however, that it must be a fight for every woman and support from every man for us to make a difference in our world. It will not change right away, the change will be slow. We must all fight for equality all around the world.