Changing the World by guest author Alex Marking

About the Author: My name is Alex Marking. I am 17, I go to Greenhill School, and I was adopted from Paraguay. A couple years back, I went on a trip to

Paraguay with The Ties Program. This year in school, we were assigned a project that revolved around something we felt strongly about. We were encouraged to give insight to the issue we chose, and hopefully "Change the World". I decided to do mine on adoption and pull from my own personal experiences. I wanted to use the project as a way to dig within myself and figure out exactly how I felt and thought about my own adoption. I wrote both a poem and a children’s book. The poem I wrote allowed me to get my emotions out on paper and share personal experiences and feelings. I was finally able to share with people that I had not previously been sure how to convey or share.For the last part of the assignment, we were to choose a place or organization to send our work to hopefully make a difference and "change the world" for someone else. In my case, I hope to give some sort of understanding or feeling of not being alone to a child or any person who may be confused about being adopted. I know that at a younger age I was unsure of how to feel, and I hope this work, in some way, helps someone, even just one person, understand that they are not alone in these feelings. I chose the Paraguayan Ties Program to share my work with because I have had a personal experience with the program that helped get me thinking about where I came from and what it meant to be adopted. The trip was one of the main catalysts that helped me start my journey to self understanding.Thank you for helping inspire this inner search and I hope my work can help change someone’s life for the better.Alex’s PoemEveryone is differentWith something that helps defineWho and what we areThat I’m adopted, that is mineI’m not saying that I’m specialOr that I’m the only oneBut I can proudly stateThat I embrace the place I’m fromFlowing through my veinsI got red, white, and blueNot just for AmericaBut for Paraguay tooTwo different flagsBoth a part of meMaking up my heritageAnd who I’m proud to beI knew that I was differentI remember what friends asked“You don’t look like your parents”“I don’t get it, why is that?”But even though I knew itI never took the timeTo try and grasp the conceptOr turn it over in my mindSometimes it takes a painful eventTo jolt a train of thoughtI remember the words of my friend clearlyThat he shouted as we foughtI don’t remember the argumentBut I know what shut me upHe said if my parents loved meThey would have never gave me upI began to questionWondered if they caredIt's hard to feel connectedTo someone who was never thereBut as the years went byI understood my motherShe let her son be takenTo be raised by anotherShe didn’t have the meansSo she found someone who didTo take me into their familyAnd raise as their own kidShe spoke for meWhen I didn't have a voiceAnd though it was difficultShe helped me make the choiceThe future that she thoughtGave me the best chanceTo succeed in my lifeTo progress and advanceAnd as a tribute to my motherThe one I never knewI do my best to push myselfAt everything I doI strive to do my bestAnd if she could see me nowI hope that she’d be happyI hope that she’d be proudThank you Alex. You have indeed changed the world. Thanks for sharing!