Reflections on a Quarter-life Crisis

A Glimpse into Internships in Geneva

In the video above, Peter Mayers (UNI''08) and Tara Lee Vaughn (SAR'10) engage in social action on an international scale in Geneva, Switzerland.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel like I had a bit of an edge, having studied under the bright minds at the World Health Organization," says Tara Vaughn.

Vaughn (SAR'10) spent last fall in the Geneva Internship Program, taking courses and working at the WHO in the strategic information unit, focusing on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. Her courses featured daily speakers from different realms of public health, and topics included abortion rights, public health issues that arise from natural disasters, and climate change.

"My amazing internship has swayed me to rethink my entire career path," Vaughn says. "I have made a major change in the course of my higher education career." She's now planning to take four full years to complete her undergraduate studies instead of accelerating through a six-year program that would result in a doctorate degree as well. This allows her to take more courses outside of a physical therapy focus, and gives her another year to consider whether, after Geneva, she should shift and pursue a doctorate in public health.

It's not just the "big picture" perspective that transformed after Vaughn's Swiss sojourn. "Now that I've worked at the WHO, navigated my way through Budapest, and haggled in various languages, a little calculus class is nothing," she says.

Additional editing by Joe Chan and Bob Heim.

Devin Hahn can be reached at dhahn@bu.edu.

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The Little Prince

           I returned from my vacation reluctantly eager. The insecure jet rattled as I clutched the bag on my lap and my girlfriends chatted without inhibitions. I had let music drown out their conversation, smiling at them every so often, until the pilot's voice came over the intercom instructing us to fasten our seatbelts, turn off all electronics, and secure overhead baggage.

          My fingers pinched the thin fabric of my bag so that I could feel the contents inside. I opened up the bag and gave the clothes a whiff to see how soon I needed to get down to the laundry room once I got back. A mix of sand, Croatian Lavender, and Peyton circulated in the bag and caught my nose by surprise. I took out the blue dress I had been wearing the last time I saw Peyton, pressed the fabric around my face and inhaled. Jess looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

          "Smells like Scott," I said turning my face to her with the dress still held high.

          "Oh yeah?" She said, "let me give it a smell."

         "No!" I said quickly, shoving the dress back into the bag, "I... um... don't want to share, he's mine," I said jokingly afraid that she might recognize Peyton's cologne.

         "Hey, I just wanted to get a scent of the guy that can make the infamously single Tara smell her dress in the middle of a plane full of people... So, when are we going to meet this Scott character?"

         "Um... soon."

          The plane landed, nerviously circling it's destination. I turned my phone back on only to find it buzzing in my hand. Peyton was "eagerly awaiting" my return. A list of the events, stories, and sights that I had experienced and wanted to tell him strung through my thoughts. Of course, looking effortlessly beautiful was a must but I wouldn't admit that to myself.

           Back in our building, my laundry dragged behind on the floor as I lazily pulled it along; My favorite pair of black skinny jeans were in this load and I had to shrink them before seeing Peyton for the first time since my entire week and a half away. Into the kitchen area and towards the washers I went. The lights were on but the room was silent except for the shuffling of my bag on the powdery tile floor.

           "Well, hello there." I didn't even have to turn around to feel his look on me, warming the right side of my back... inundating the left.

           "Oh hey, what's up? Enjoy your week?" I said fixing my posture and turning around. The hair cleared my face as I whipped my head around and saw him leaning back in his chair. He didn't seem to have any real purpose at the kitchen table. He had no computer, no food, not even a snack, only his phone sitting at the corner of the table, the screen facing the cieling.

            "Yeah, yeah," he replied noncommittally, "But more importantly, how was you're week?"

           "Absolutely fantastic! Oh man, did I tell you we...." I began, taking a seat across the table from him, abandoning my laundry in the middle of the room. He leaned forward as I talked. I could see when he wasn't actually listening to what I said but it didn't make me upset. More so, I wondered what he was thinking about. It was if he were only partly listening to what I was saying and partly daydreaming. His lips always pursed a little to the right and up when he did it and his eyebrows dropped towards his wide eyes. I felt there was always something more that he wanted to say but just kept it behind his continuous grin. He glowed at me withholding secrets and thoughts behind his smile.

            "Well, I have a little something for you," he said.

            Silence.

            "Well then, I'll have to stroll by for a visit." He didn't know that I had stressed much over getting him something from my travels. I settled on Rum... delicious, useful, and not too personal. Playing it safe as per usual. I'm so good at that.

           "Tap, tap, tap," I rhythmically strummed my fingers on his door later that night after checking that no one was around to witness our covert affair.

          "I knew you'd come. Girls always come for the gifts." He said, grinning at the door. He opened the door a bit wider and I slipped in through the smallest crack possible. The room was the most relaxing shade of yellow that I could imagine. If crayola made Peyton's room into a crayon color, they would call it Pure Bliss. The window was open, slightly floating the curtains  upwards and exposing the frames beneath. He had lit a candle and I did my best to roll my eyes but could only bring myself to blush.

           "You're wrong. I didn't come for presents," I explained. That was the truth but I doubted he knew it.

           He pulled out from underneath the bed a large child's book. The cover, weathered by time and use, was yellow and depicted Le Petit Prince in an old-town script. The cover and page edges were tattered; when I flipped through them I embraced the familiar smell of a used book. Each page held extravagant pictures of the tales, painted in saturated colors. The seemingly hand-written French text gave us a glimpse into the pictures above.

                We crunched together at the head of his bed. His feet laid flat with bent knees and I rested myself in the sanctuary he had built with his lower body. He encompassed me, holding the book in front while I turned the pages. I did my best to translate the words I knew I should say but leaned heavily on his skills. He patiently listed as I read, doing his best to not help so that I could learn to do it myself. I forced my mouth to say words I had never thought before.

              "Hey! You didn't even say thank you," he said half-jokingly, nudging me with his elbow.

           "What? Oh, Peyton, Thank You. I should have said it earlier." I really should have said it earlier. Poor Peyton.

            I lay in Peyton's bed the next morning so content. It surprised me.

            My limbs sprawled over his white sheets, still warm from where he had only a couple minutes ago had been laying. He had hopped out to get dressed. I secretly watched him poke around the room trying to get his black jersey shorts on. His back made a V towards his lower body with just enough softness on top of his shorts. His skin had a lustrous hue that made me want to run my hands along the rays - wrap my hands around him and rest my head on the outward arch of his upper back. 

            I closed my eyes before speaking so he wouldn' t know I was observng him. "Peyton?"

           "Yeees, dear?" He replied, buttoning up his dark green collared shirt in the mirror over the mantel.

          "Why are you awake so early?"

          "Well, ma petit," he said looking at me, "I have to leave for work at 7:30."

           "That's silly."

           Fully dressed, he learned over the bed and closely observed my face, smiling and glowing. The pressure of his straightened arm pressed into the indention of the mattress beside me, causing me to rotate slightly into the fortess of his upper body. I breathed in the scent of his the cologne that so many times I had gone home and smelt on my dress - let it fill my lungs - cologne and Peyton. His eyes darted across my face and eyes like an intent newborn. I crinkled my nose as he pecked me on the forehead and continued getting dressed.

               After basking in the glow for a moment, I propped myself up. "O.K., young sir. I should go." All I had was my oversized Community Service Center T-shirt and moon slippers. I dragged the soles of my slippers out of Room 504.

              "See you later. Have a good day at work," Peyton said as he smirked. Always smirking.

              The hallway was notably colder than Peyton's room and the sound of my dragging soles echoed in the concrete corridor. Peering down the way, I spotted the ghost man that lived in our building with his eerily perceptive German Shepard. Slightly ashamed and amused by my irrational fear, I rested on the stairs until he passed.

          I leaned against the cold wall, my hair scattered against the wall in all directions. I pulled my knees into my chest and restd my head on them as the cold coming fromthe tiles through my exposed legs sought comfort in my skin. I smiled and listened in on pale man talk to his dog affectionately.

         "Good girl, good girl." I heard the dog scamper around and pant in excitement. I gently snorted at the thought of such a beast of a mammal enjoying the unconditional positive regard of a such a grim and lanky man who was usually just as stoic as the dog. "Oh, it's raining. Wait here while daddy gets the umbrella."

         I had never heard this man utter one word before now! Even when I effervescently greeted him in the lobby from day to day, he simply nodded in my direction. So out of character... for both of them!

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Finding the Lost Generation: Child Soldiers

Child soldiering can dramatically affect the psychological developmental of a child. The traumas of war, the separation from family, and the dangers of life in the military are common concerns of those studying the psychological wellness of child soldiers before, during, and after life in the military. While Western psychology may not fully capture psychological gains and conditions that evolve from child soldiering, it is important to understand all the research to establish policies and programs that benefit the rights of individuals whether children or adults.

While the physical and psychological safety comes to the forefront of most Westerners' minds when the topic of child soldiering comes up, the impacts of war on child go far beyond depression and PTSD. War affects the way a child grows up and the way he/she perceives the world. Reintegration for a former child soldier can be just as difficult as their war experiences because it involves a conscious alteration in the way one thinks. Although supportive families and communities seem to be the best vehicle for positive reintegration into civilian life, many returning soldiers suffer ostracism and stigmatization.

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Life as a Child Soldier
The cognitive map of a child soldier can be vastly different from that of a civilian child. It is common, and almost necessary, for the military to become a kind of family for a child soldier who has been ostracized or abducted from his/her community. The following excerpt, written by a child soldier of Sudan, demonstrates this idea:
I knew more than ever now that the SPLA would one day save me. Babba had sent me away, Nyagai, my my brothers, and my sisters must have forgotten me, but the SPLA were still looking after me and would one day win back my country (Jal, 2009).
The military tends to treat their child soldier differently from their adult soldiers in that they "mold" the children into perfect soldiers. On this idea, the military could be viewed as ‘raising' their soldiers. For example, trainers will expose child soldiers to violence to harden them for battle and will impress their own values upon the children. This phenomenon is often compared to Stockholm's Syndrome in which abductees show signs of loyalty and trust towards their kidnappers.

Hostile Intent Bias

As expected, children who have participated in war activities are overall more aggressive than children who do not participate in such activities. Some children, however, are more at risk for attaining these temperaments; if a child had a hostile intent bias before entering the military, it is likely that the reinforcement that these assumptions are true can lead to extremely aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior is more likely to develop in children who perceive their environment as dangerous and other people as malevolent and this is particularly true for children in war times. These same soldiers also use narrowed or distorted interpretations of their experiences. Because a child soldier does not have an enriched environment during childhood, they are less likely to observe and apply the right scripts in problem solving techniques outside of violence. For these reasons, much rehabilitation is centered on altering the way a child perceives the world and teaching problem-solving strategies in civilian life. While this is the most effective strategy in rehabilitation that affects all aspects of civilian life, it is also the hardest to accomplish.

RATIONALE FOR RESEARCH
While a number of factors exist that affect a former child soldier's ability to reintegrate into a civilian community, better outcomes have been correlated with the age of return of the child. Many theories exist to explain this correlation but two prominent, well-known theories are that a younger child is more resilient than an older child or a younger child is better accepted into a community after having served. In order to test a society's willingness to help a younger child over and older child, this study was created.
In addition to measuring the effect of age on reintegration, demonstration of aggressive tendencies was also included as a factor; many refugee agencies exclude child soldiers from eligibility for refugee protection on the basis that they pose a risk to their community so this factor was included to test its effects on willingness to help.
It is important to note the main limitation to this study: here we are measuring the willingness of acceptance of a mainly Western sample which is less ecologically valid for the purposes of actual reintegration.
It is also important to understand that most of the 'positive' and ‘negative' outcomes that we rate are established by our culture, not the culture in which the child lives. It is common to have a knee-jerk reaction to the 'atrocities' of child soldiering but only by understanding and respecting another culture can we ensure a better quality of life for all parties involved. For example, we may think that mistrusting all the people around you is detrimental to your health but many cultures believe that it simply a pragmatic e view on life. Although we do impose Western psychological concepts such as depression and trauma, these ideals can be fragmentary when applied to a different culture. Our idea of reintegration can be vastly different than that of another culture. It is important to approach these psychological analyses in the context of widely varying cultures each with their own values, customs, and attitudes.

SAMPLE & DATA COLLECTION
The study conducted was in the form of four general vignettes of child soldiers: Story A, B, C, and D. Each story took on four forms in which the character was: 1. older and aggressive, 2. younger and aggressive, 3. older and non-aggressive, 4. younger and non-aggressive. From these 16 stories, 4 material sets were formed. Each material set had one story from categories A-D and 1-4.

The four material sets were as follows:
W   X    Y    Z
A1 A2 A3 A4
B2 B3  B4  B1
C3 C4  C1  C2
D4 D1  D2 D3

Each vignette was taken from War Child (Emmanuel, 2009) and altered slightly to fit the specifications of its category. Some aggressive words were changed to ones with non-aggressive connotations and, of course, the name and age of the child in each vignette was changed. The four excerpts were similar in that they all indicated that the child had been in the militant group for 2 years, none discussed the actual violence done by the child, and all expressed some of the child's feelings and thoughts on the topic. Each story had to be different, however, so that the participants could not detect the experimental factors.
The "older" category consisted of boys 13-15 years old at the time of the interview while the 'younger' category consisted of boys 8-10 years old at the time of the interview. Each vignette indicated that the boy had been involved in the military for two years by the time of the interview.
Please refer to the actual vignettes and material sets presented later.
The vignettes were distributed through an internet network database. Subjects were randomly assigned to read either W, X, Y, or Z material sets. The subjects were instructed to take on the position of a representative of their country and rank the priority of each child soldier for refugee protection.
The total number of surveys completed were N = 124, with n = 31 for each material set.

RESULTS
According the results of this vignette survey research on child soldier reintegration and priority to help a child soldier, participants prioritized children who were younger and non-aggressive as having the highest priority for refugee protection compared to any of the other groups. On average, these children were rated as having a priority of 3.4 on a scale of 4. Older and non-aggressive children, on average, scored the lease priority, 2.9, but not much less than younger aggressive children, and older non-aggressive children who scored around 3.0.
After conducting a factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), it was found that both age group and temperament affect the priority scores and that the two factors interacted with one another.

DISCUSSION
After the survey was conducted, some participants volunteered their thoughts on the choices they had to make. Most agreed that trying to prioritize the children seemed nearly impossible. This concept, however, brings up a notable weakness in the research. There is often a great divide in what ‘should' be done and what is actually done as well as striking differences in the way a participant would react in the actual situation described in the vignette. Furthermore, the idea that people cannot be prioritized and that everyone is born equal is a fundamental western belief that is not held by the whole world and is definitely note implemented in actions by all, thus making the research less ecologically valid.
As expected, the participants' rationale behind their choices tended to cluster around 3 main points:
1. Younger children are more resilient than older ones and so are more likely to be able to reintegrate
2. Aggressive children would pose a safety risk to the community
3. Aggressive children may be "too far gone" to be reintegrated back into civilian life.

REHABILITATION AND REINTIEGRATION INTO SOCIETY
Upon returning to civilian society, a former child soldier has many tough adjustments in habits and views on the world. In fact, many youth report that the return to their village was as stressful as their experiences in the military had been. It has been determined that most returning child soldiers suffer from PTSD, depression, and/or anxiety. While these psychological issues are of concern to western psychologists, most returning soldiers report their most pressing concerns as an inability to earn money, fear of rejection, stigmatization, being unsuitable for marriage, and more.
It is also notable that some soldiers rate their experiences positively in that it helped build their chracer, increase their resilience, open the door of opportunity, provide leadership experience, as well as commitment to a meaningful cause (Brett & Specht, 2004).

CONCLUSION
While the physical and psychological safety comes to the forefront of most Westerners' minds when the topic of child soldiering comes up, the impacts of war on child go far beyond depression and PTSD. War affects the way a child grows up and the way he/she perceives the world. Reintegration for a former child soldier can be just as difficult as their war experiences because it involves a conscious alteration in the way one thinks. Although supportive families and communities seem to be the best vehicle for positive reintegration into civilian life, many returning soldiers suffer ostracism and stigmatization.
Current policies regarding child soldiers are inconsistent with many psychological findings. The convention on the Rights of the Child established that person under the age of 18 may participate in war activities. Children who enter the military on their own accord because they belief in its efforts, however, tend to have positive psychological outcomes. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees currently exclude culpable child soldiers for refugee protection on the basis of safety for others. This policy, however, deters child from leaving the military because it supports stigma and ostracism while denying any form of help for reintegration into the community.

REFERENCES
Barber, B. (2009). Adolescents and War. New York: Oxford University Press.
Brett, R., Specht, I. (2004). Younger Soldiers: Why they chose to fight. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Erikson, E. E. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton.
Jal, E. (2009). War Child. New York: St. Martin's Press.

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A Way Out?

"You are cynical, my friend," the young physicist said to me jokingly while pointing with the one finger he had lifted off of his half-empty beer. I light-heartedly agreed with him though I understood that he was more right than he knew. "Why so cynical?"

            My two semesters of physics brought me about 10 minutes through his conversation but, after that, I was lost. I took a sip of my rosé and scanned the bar while the physicist yammered on. He was about 5'8", just a couple inches above me in my kelly-green, patent leather peep-toe pumps. I looked at him as he talked but listened very little to what he was saying. His wrinkly blue button-down attempted to mask the dinginess of the white t-shirt underneath, worn-out from too many washings; the last button wasn't align. Isn't this guy a physicist? Can't he button his own damn shirt? I opened my mouth to tell him about the button mishap but realized he was really only talking to himself and had practically forgotten I was there. I paused for a moment, mouth ajar, and re-assumed the listening position. I smiled as I judged the greasy tips of his hair... I mean, why were the tips greasy? Doesn't the grease come from the roots? Shake it off, Tara. The boy is talking to you. He went for sip of his beer (which he had been nursing for longer than socially acceptable by now) and I pounced on my opportunity to interject. "Oh, so you're here for the research in Cern... A couple of friends and I are going to have an end-of-the-world party the night before they turn the thing on and if the world still exists the next day, we can have a celebration party for it," I said, giggling and not letting the wine in my hand hamper my over-zealous hand motions.

            "First off, that thing you are referring to is a particle accelerator. Furthermore, the world really isn't going to end, I hope you realize. We've done this experiment many times before on much smaller scales. This one has just received a lot more media attention because it involves more people and is something to look forward to."

            Yeah, guy. It was a joke. Do you think I'd be here reluctantly tolerating you right now if I actually believed the world was going to end? No way... especially with someone who ends their sentences in a preposition. Ok, I'm out for real this time.

            I scanned the room looking for my way out of this conversation, or lack thereof. The combination of the lighting and the paint gave the room a terra cotta appearance which surprisingly fit with the juxtaposed wood floor and wavy art deco bar on which I leaned. My peripheral vision spotted Peyton not too far behind me chatting with some of the others from our group. His jacket was already draped over his arm although I could tell he just recently come in from the cold by the undertones of blue in his face. His normally rosy complexion had been stolen by the wind's bite but he was regaining blood flow, each time he smiled. I could hear his laugh over all the others'.

            The physicist was still zealously talking at me so I took a backwards step along the bar, putting myself into a convex groove of the counter. With his next couple of hand motions, he moved a step closer bridging the recently formed gap. Another attempt on my part was fruitless so, finally, I excused myself to the ladies' room.

I smiled politely to the girl waiting in line in front of me. "Bon Soir," I said tipping my head in her direction. She reciprocated a smile as the door behind her creaked open and my new friend was gone. I teased my hair in the mirror, tossing it about. Voluminous. After dabbing a bit of crystal red lip gloss, I ascended the bar stairs and nonchalantly scanned the room for Peyton. Ding! Ding! Target found.

I downed a sip of my wine and wiped the corners of my lips. The thin wine swayed in my glass as I tried to gracefully approach him while not revealing that I was consciously trying for this. "Hey boy," I said with a coy smile hiding secrets behind my teeth, "How ya doin'?"

"Not too bad. Those guys you were talking to were, well, short," he teased.

"Yeah, you're right. I like my men about 6 feet and half an inch."

"Well, isn't that a coincidence? That is my exact height," he retorted with a grin.

I lifted my wine and turned my body to leave, "Hmmm... quite the coincidence."

He winked and shook his head at me. I still hadn't decided if I liked the winking but our encounter caused tingles in the bottom of my spine made me forget all about the winking.

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A New Epidemic

Apathy: The Epidemic

Symptoms & Signs

Hypointeresosis, more commonly known as apathy, is the third largest killer of the American spirit, second only to physical death and jadedness. Its symptoms include tardiness, inconsistency, undependability, wishy-washyness, predictability, and indigestion. Its onset tends to be around the age of entering sophomore year of college and, without treatment, can continue until old age and cause premature death.

Apathy has the best treatment outcomes when identified early. These early indicators, however, can be hard to notice as they often occur in groups of people and are commonly mistaken for routines or ruts. Those that have a high resistance to the disease are a clinician's best tool in identifying the disease early. One can notice the rise in the prevalence of apathy by decreased attendance to meaningful events and sloppy appearance. The caregiver that identifies this symptom must be quite perceptive as its beginnings lead the observer to believe that the victim is aware of and cares about the world around them but the disease surfaces when plans fade and the spark of enthusiasm has fizzled. The same symptom can be identified in a person who has lived with the disease for many years with statements such as "When I was your age, I wanted to become a lawyer and travel the world saving lives; now I am the manager at the Athlete's Foot." In terms of overall populations, a caregiver notices the increase in apathy by excessive e-mails canceling events due to lack of participation and little attendance in any event that doesn't involve alcohol or the possibility of earning money.

Causes

The causes of apathy are completely unknown and continue to be a medical mystery that has been around since the dawn of modern politics. Many psychologists have attempted to pin the cause of hypointeresopathosis but never finished their research. Some theories include lack of stimulation and activities in cities and not enough work to do while in college.

While the causes of Apathy are unknown, it is the root of many other diseases which include but are not limited to alcoholism, infidelity, dissociative identity disorder, violence, compulsive shopping, depression, and ignorance.

Trends

Epidemics show little discrepancies within populations but gaping disparities between nations. While the developing nations show a drastically lower prevalence of apathy, the United States has the lowest occurrence among the industrialized countries. This protective factor has been attributed to the youth of the nation and the omnipresent American dream. Each year, however, the incidence of Apathy increases, closing the gap between the US and other developed countries.

Apathy is the disease of the modern world. Because of its anonymity, its victims get very little recognition. Society lets Apathy spread - there is no anti-apathy week, no education on how to protect one's self from apathy. No parent warns their child of the evils of apathy when entering college or a new job. There is no Alliance to Stop Apathy. President Obama will not launch a war against Apathy.

The plague is nearly invisible as it narrows its victims' minds and stamps out free thought and the courage to help people. The disease is usually caught too late as it chips away its victims' enthusiasm and vigor.

Ignorance is often mistaken for apathy but is quite different in the way it effects the individual. Ignorance has the potential to at least cause outrage while Apathy sits stalely behind the patients' eyes and on the top of their mouths. One of the most common co-morbidities of Apathy are boredom and increased gambling urges.

Treatment

Many Apathetics try to self-treat by changing life circumstances which has been proven to provide temporary relief. Bored and 30? Why not try an extramarital affair? Nothing to do at the age of 20? Keg party is the way to go. Spiritless at 40? Time to buy a Jaguar. Restless at 15? Time to steal a Jaguar.

Other self treatment attempts are available, some more costly than others, but show very little consistency in plans, especially among the younger generations. If patients show retention to treatment, however, recovery has a 100% success rate. These treatments include reading, writing, community service, dancing, knitting, horseback riding, music, traveling, swimming, figure skating, running, painting, scrap-booking, cooking, watching theater, opera, singing, research, conversation, woodworking, pottery, surfing, sewing, politics, playing sports, people watching, joining clubs, training, gaming, cleaning, designing, sketching, auctions, touring, strolling, karate, hiking, poetry, baking, skiing, and more.

The advance treatment of apathy involves 3 basic steps to recovery. The first and hardest step towards the cure is acknowledging the existence of the disease. After this difficult task, the patient must stop to feel the apathy instead of running; this way they can attempt to fill the gaping void where their dreams used to be. Soon enough they will be disgusted at themselves for being bored, disgusted at the world for not caring, and disgusted at the atrocities and travesties that are occurring every moment but have been too jaded and apathetic to notice before. Once this is realized, relapse is extremely rare.

Conclusions

Apathy is like the persistent dust of New Delhi; You can try all you want to protect yourself from it but you cannot escape the eventual build-up throughout the day. You breathe it in, talk with its victims, eat it in your food, watch it float in your water all the while not realizing the layers and layers that you have accumulated. You cannot notice it until you cleanse yourself from the pollutants, watching the gritty swirl of gray and brown disappear down the bathtub drain.

The incidence and prevalence of apathy has been increasing exponentially throughout the decades and will cause the demise of the developed world if not somehow eradicated. It has the possibility of causing a deficit in leadership, free thought, and morality. There is no vaccine, there is no known cause, and there are plenty of treatments. The disease is a complete mystery that has no explainable reason for existence.

Right now, the biggest threat Apathy poses is not to the individual and their role as a citizen, but to the developed society as a whole. As Apathy grows with each generation and each passing year, it poses the threat of causing a societal paradigm shift to believing that those that do not have the disease - those that care and are aware - are seen as the overachievers. The disease's rise has already begun to change perspectives of many citizens into believing that apathy is normal, that it is alright. Apathy is not alright.

Thank You for Thinking.

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