While we are away at school, we tend to forget the connections we have with other people, and the influence we can have on them. We worry about our grades or whose party we’re going to on the weekend or what we hear on the news, and consequently, we forget about our roots and our connections with the people that are still part of our lives.

I spent the first week of break riding the wave of comfort on my mattress and baking under the warm glow of daytime television, waiting for the impending return to a seasonal job.

Work eventually started, and it did not take long for the regular schedule of family get-togethers and reunions with loose-ended friends to start up in full swing. In the midst of talking to everyone, it became downtrodden by the lack of effect a person’s absence can have.

For one nightmarish week of break, this point came to me with a heavy hand. Over trips to diners and cups of coffee, loud music and all-night parties, treks over expressways and random early-morning phone calls, I witnessed these events.

For me it was in shaking hands with a friend the night before he was sent off to Iraq. Just before the president was on television vowing a troop surge, the reality of a friend in combat set into the minds my friends and mine.

I could hear doubt in conversations about college and careers. An old friend asked me if I was sure I knew what I wanted out of life, and then sensed the conversation wasn’t really about me, but about her own fears.

I could feel my stomach wrench when I heard rumors of girls who are now single mothers younger than me and people overcoming addictions on minimum wage.

Returning home sometimes feels like returning to the end of a battle with all the consequences played out. It is difficult to comprehend that some things don’t become the hallmark ideal of life, and from this, sometimes we fall into apathy and give up on what we cannot directly affect.

The truth is sometimes we cannot change the things we read in the paper or see on TV, and these aren’t the things that truly affect us. Often a call to action is well-intended, but overlooks the situations we can truly influence.

I cannot say that all situations can be resolved, and I definitely cannot claim that anything is accomplished with good intentions.

I will still argue against apathy and the belief that the roles we play are meaningless. The most important of all responsibilities are those closest to us.

No matter the situation, nothing can ever be considered a lost cause.