An Introduction.

On the first day of class, our Principles of Journalism lecturer, Sharaad, asked us to draw a map of Southeast Asia and label it without referring to anything or anyone else. Being the typically ignorant young adults we are, we were completely lost. Some of us (myself included) came up with maps that, to be honest, looked very much like...angular...splats of...blood(?) on a white piece of paper.

That first day of class showed us how little we knew about the world around us.

On the second day of class, Sharaad asked for a show of hands: how many of us actually went home and looked up the map of Southeast Asia? He was appalled by the result. About 5 hands went up, in our class of 44 people.

That second day of class showed us how little we actually cared about the world around us.

"Guys, seriously. This is awful. Not knowing things is not so bad, because you can always learn. Not caring about things, however.....that's a pre-requisite to your intellectual death," he said, shocked, as the nervous giggles bubbled up in the air.

And it dawned on me how true that was, for I was one of the guilty 39 people who had not, in fact, bothered to look it up.

I believe it's a sad and true fact that people my age (not excluding myself) -- the very sons and daughters of the Information Age -- don't know a lot. Not for a lack of resources, either (hello, google!) but instead for a lack of empathy.

We simply don't care, and it scares me to see how little I know and care.

So I've decided that, with the beginning of Journalism class as well as of this blog, I'm going to make an effort to open up my mind to see and learn about this world I live in.

More than that, in fact. In order for me to want to open up my mind more to the world, I'm going to train myself to care about it.

I'm only 19, after all. It's not too late to give a shit.

And so, I present you, my very first blog as a journalist.