I Throw My Hands Up in the Air Sometimes, Saying "Oh no, Where'd the World Go?"

Last week, I had the rather embarrassing experience of being asked what I thought of the current goings on with North Korea, which led to a subsequent acknowledgment of my well-rounded ignorance on the topic. (Don’t get me wrong, I was aware there is something going on, and that it is something related to some sort of nuclear issue, but I found myself lacking in specifics, to say the least). Luckily, this exchange occurred with a good friend and the embarrassment it brought on was short-lived enough, and we moved on to discussing other things. However, the experience stuck with me, and so I, being a college student of sound mind and body, hereby admit to my own ignorance, not just in regards to the issues with North Korea, but to a general ignorance of current world events.

This is not a feat I am particularly proud of. As blissful as ignorance may be, with all the media outlets available, there really isn’t an excuse to not be informed about what is going in the world around us…particularly when it concerns another country putting the threat of a nuclear strike out there.

Seeking to better my mind and lose the twinges of shame at appearing so clueless, I took some time in the last few days to begin educating myself on current events. And, to be frank, each passing article I read reminded me of why unfortunately, in the back of my head, I know I let myself remain ignorant. Today for example, within minutes of scrolling through the New York Times and Yahoo! news (with  their vast stores of celebrity gossip), I found myself feeling a little, you know, depressed, hopeless, and wanting to throw my hands up and say “WTF world?!”

Nuclear threats, murder, gun control, equality and immigration issues, missing kids….oh and something thrown in there about Kim Kardashian’s impending divorce. Because that last one, that’s important to my world view. The more I read, the more my mind began to snowball, and eventually reached the conclusion (though certainly still premature and by no  means completely informed) that the world is just, falling apart. I realize the extremely broad generalization that statement contains, but as I read, I couldn’t quell the reflex of thinking the worst. And it makes me sad. It’s sad that so many bad things are happening in the world,  it’s sad that I let myself stay ignorant because finding out about the bad things makes me sad, and it’s sad that we, myself included, avoid the bad things in lieu of reading celebrity garbage. I can, with some repulsion, tell you all about Kim Kardashian and her divorce, but probably could not relay a paragraph’s worth of information about what’s on the table right now concerning gun control.

It’s a sad state to be in, and I know I am not alone in my ignorance. As a population in general, many of us are, by our own choice and with a plethora of reasons why, uninformed. And it needs to change.