John
Prendergast Lecture
Reflection-
Only a Fraction of an Understanding
Okay, so I’ve told you all (my
classmates) about how difficult it is to recover from the loss of my oldest
brother. I’ve expressed to at least thirty people how constant the grief is after
the death of a sibling. However, in all honesty after listening rather
attentively, if I might add, to John Prendergast’s speech about the domestic
war in the Congo I really began to think about the life I live, and how fortunate
I still am. I know how cliché and
self-centered this reflection may appear, so let me clarify that this response
is supposed to symbolize everything contrary to this. Because of this lecture
with Mr. Prendergast I have gained a different understanding of life.
After hearing John Prendergast’s
lecture on the civil wars in Africa, my heart sank to the bottom of my stomach-literally.
Through his powerfully descriptive words and passionate tone, Mr. Prendergast
was truly able to evoke a ton of emotion from his audience. I appreciated his
style of lecture because it appeared more so that he was talking with us and
amongst us, rather than to us or at us as an audience. Not only did he blow us
all away when he illustrated the brutal conditions of the ongoing issues
occurring in Africa, but he built us up as college students when he informed us
about how we have limitless potential to change the society in which we live in
today, and for this I am appreciative of him even more. People always hear
about how they make a difference in numbers vote or rally together or whatever.
Yet, Mr. Prendergast showed us [as college students] how we make a difference
already and how to continue doing so. I was honored at how much respect and
gratitude he showed us even when we ourselves view one another as just silly, college
students. Furthermore, during his lecture I was awed at how pragmatic he was.
In some parts of his lecture I was
unable to sit comfortable in my chair. I found that during the really graphic
points he made in his lecture, my face began to scrunch up and I began to
squirm in my seat. Nevertheless two things I am certain of- I am naturally an
overdramatic person, and this is exactly the reaction (whether felt internally
or acted out eternally as I did) that Prendergast wanted to conjure from his
audience. Often times I was incapable of fathoming conditions such as the ones
in which the citizens of the Congo have undergone. But even in just imagining
just a fraction of the pain and hardship in which they experience as victims of
war was enough to truly just leave a person speechless. Honestly, I shake my
head in dismay at how cruel people can be. I sincerely hurt for the victims of
war in the Congo. And, I now question some of the values I live for.