"A PATH APPEARS" REFLECTION

For our summer reading for Global Studies, we were assigned to read the book A Path Appears but Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.  This book was about different charities and community service projects that help people around the world, there impacts, and how people can get involved.  I had many different thoughts on this book. In my opinion, the book was particularly interesting when I read a story I was actually interested in, or when I read about a charity you don’t hear about very often.  For example, I found it somewhat difficult to dive into the chapter about charity:water because it is so well known and I already knew what it was. When it comes to interests, I also found the shorter mini stories in between chapters more interesting than the bigger ones that were filled with statistics.  I found myself accidentally skimming through the statistics rather than actually reading them. This would lead to me losing interest in the entire chapter itself because the packed statistics are simply a lot to follow. I like books that are concise and to the point, and add the necessary details to add imagery or help with comprehension.  I feel like oversharing in a story is a way to lose people's attention, because people get bored of reading about the appearance of a room, or dirt for a couple of paragraphs. One thing I did really like about this book, though, was how expansive it was. It covered so many different organizations that it was truly impossible to not find just one that you were interested in.  It gave you information on how to get involved and it provided charities for diverse interests. Although a lot of the book was focused on donating money and time, I think it would have been interesting to read more about how people can make a difference without donating tons of dollars and hours. I would have liked to read about more people who didn’t contribute a whole lot, but still felt pride afterward.  There was an extreme number of unexpected success stories, which were very interesting, but it would have been nice to hear some stories about people who were average and found themselves involved in charity the same way we all did.

I LOVED how this book focused in on marketing and raising awareness for different organizations.  Prior to reading this and to our in class discussion, I had never really imagined that maybe some of the ads are staged, and maybe some of these situations are different than they appear.  In my opinion, as long as the money and help are going toward the fund that is being advertised, it doesn’t really matter whether or not the ad is “real” or not. If we can gain more donations from these types of images, then who cares.  Of course, there is a point where this crosses a line, such as lying about what the real story is, but as long as we are truthful and gaining money, our job is being done.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the book.  It was cool to read about other people’s experiences (I particularly liked the ones about people in the U.S. with abusive pasts who came out on top).  I definitely think that this book will impact the way I look at charities in the future, and I can easily say that I am more interested in community work after reading this book.