"I initially was not going to submit a final project due to a recent lapse in energy, but I realized the night of the deadline that this narrative is worth publishing if it positively influences even just one person.

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For the past 10 weeks, of which I have participated in 8 meetings, I developed a deeper understanding of the interconnected nature of our city, its history and architecture, and the environmental and racial issues facing it. As much as these problems can only be solved by community action, individual drive is vitally important. Throughout those weeks I spent with ProFESS, my classmates often saw me with disposable gloves and a trash bag, picking up the abandoned litter at our various meeting spots. I enjoyed doing this, until I picked up trash at a spot I frequently passed by on my way to work. Seeing an equal amount of trash there, mere days after I spent hours cleaning it all up, was devastating. My message is simple: please, at the bare minimum, clean your own messes. The few who choose to clean up the messes of ours will never be able to do so with such frequency or ability as to negate the effect of those who choose to disregard their own responsibility.

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We cannot survive in a world in which each person passes on his duty to his neighbor."