Vast Contrast

Background to the reasoning of my thoughts:

Sebastiao Salgado is a photographer who brings refugee situations to the surface, I am studying his work and finding ways to apply it to my life. In his book Migrations, which is full of photographs, the one that stood out to me this week, was about the Vietnamese Migration. Refugees would travel by boat, they would come to the shores of Galang searching of new lives. Salgado refers to them as the "boat people". During World War 2 and after the Japanese had gained Singapore, they made Galang into a prison camp. Destroying the hopes of these people by putting them in detainee camps as well as destroying the boats they had previously arrived in. Today there are as many as 5,577 detainees.

My response to this picture: 

I was intrigued by this picture because of the vast contrast of old and new, past and present, destruction and construction. There are the remaining pieces of the wood and the boats which lie on the shore like bones of a lifeless past, and then around the edges there is the slight vision of growth and a rebirth. When people say that we can make a difference I slightly agree and I slightly disagree. I think one of the biggest services we can do to better the world is to first better ourselves. Whether it be getting better grades, respecting authority, being a little kinder, getting out of that hole, quitting drugs, deciding to be happy, deciding to stop a bad habit. We all could do a little better, including me. After we do this we have unlimited possibilities, we can help these refugees, the homeless, the scared, we can actually make that difference, but the change has to come within ourselves first.

There was a time in my life where I was like those beaten up logs where I felt like nothing valuable could come from my situation. I was broken. I broke my back my sophomore year in high school and I literally felt like my dreams were being ripped away from me. I couldn't do the thing I loved most, dance. I had a hard time walking, sitting, laying down, carrying a back pack, even getting out of bed was a huge challenge. I was so mad at the world because I wasn't like the regular kids at my school, I had a hard time even going to school and I wore a bulky brace and I couldn't participate in many of the social activities. It took me three years to realize that this didn't define me.

I have found talents I never even thought were possible to have. I have found friends who show me the good side of life, who show me that laughing at how I walk like a grandma can actually be funny (it actually really is hilarious). I have had a rebirth. I have grown into something that carries those scars of being broken with a genuine smile. I know it is possible and I know it can happen. There is no recipe to better yourself or become happy, everyone is different. But everyone can make that change. Whatever it is that is a struggle, I encourage you to find a way out, so that when you are given the opportunity to help those who really need it, you will be the first ones there and the last ones to go.

Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. Print.

Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (Pamphlet) New York: Aperture, 2000. Print.