Growing up in the US, I always had everything I needed, and a lot that I didn’t need. I never had to experience any hardships or struggle just to survive. As a member of the Tzu Chi charity organization, I’ve watched countless documentaries of the living conditions in Third World countries: women and men forced to drink dirty water, children swimming across a lake daily just to go to school, the lack of electricity and proper housing. These lessons taught me to appreciate my life and how fortunate I am, and in turn, sparked a desire to improve these people’s lives.

I’ve seen the unhappy faces of people living in these countries everywhere, and they never fail to evoke my empathy. These children need our help, even though they may be only a few out of millions. Too often the value of life is downplayed in numerical figures, and the life of a single individual becomes meaningless. Human lives are precious, every single one of them. Although our fundraising concert will only fund the building of proper walls for one orphanage out of hundreds, we have helped the precious lives living inside. And just the knowledge of that makes me happy.