Global Citizenship

Being a student of GCU means that it is important that we work towards GCUs graduate attributes one of which is global citizenship. Before writing this post, I was thinking about what makes me a global citizen. Not fully understanding what global citizenship means I started my research on the GCU website. The link on global citizenship led me to a this youtube clip where Hugh Evan talks about what it means to be a global citizen. This guy was amazing, I was hooked on his every word. It is truly inspiring to think that one person taking a stand can make such a huge difference in the world. Even more that all it takes is one person taking a stand to make other people stand up and take charge.

Feeling the inspiration of Hugh, I begin to think about what I do that makes me a global citizen. This left me feeling a bit deflated as I came to the conclusion, I am not an ACTIVE global citizen. Yes, I may work with a company who’s contributing to the fight against a global pandemic. Yes, I may have previously worked within the community looking after the elderly and vulnerable. But this is not enough! There’s so much I feel passionate about that I don’t do anything about, so much that I know is wrong in the world that I don’t raise awareness of. Going back to Hugh and one the comments he made about how “it’s not that people don’t want to be global citizens it’s that they don’t know how or they don’t think they that will be able to make a difference”.  Feeling totally inspired I want to change this. Mental health is something I feel very strongly about. Having experienced mental health struggles since my teens I know how limited support services are and how hard it can be to talk to someone when you know there is limited options for help out there.

I have decided that after my exams I will volunteer my services for a mental health charity even if it’s just as a listening ear. I would love to do this right now but I know from pervious experience that taking on too much at once has a negative impact on my own mental health. Therefore, waiting until after my exams, I know I have more chance of staying well enough myself to be able to support others and hopefully also start fundraising for the chosen charity. Who knows I may be able to use my new cupcake business to help with fundraising 😊