Fired Up

I have just returned from my first evening attending Organize the Hope. It is a weekend conference dedicated to activism, leadership, humanity, peace, and hope.
I applied to the conference about 2 moths ago and was regretting my decision all day today. I was in a weird funk of a mood and the last thing I wanted to do was sit in a room full of strangers. I layered up, slipped on my gloves, topped myself off with a hat and drudged my way to the conference. I walked into a circle of brown collapsible chairs and sat next to Mary. I was still not feeling the vibe of peace and love and wore my fake smile until we started actually talking about why we were there. We all signed up for this conference not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into, but knowing that the weekend will change us for the better. We ended up having great small group discussions and I found that I shared the same feelings, frustrations, and passions as every one else in the room.
I normally am a listener. I absolutely hate talking in public. Doesn't matter if it's 3 people or 23 I can't do it. I start to shake, sweat, and feel the unbearable need to throw up all over the place. Tonight I found myself talking...quite a bit actually. I not only talked but talked passionately. Rather than feeling the need to spew I felt a wonderful tingling feeling all over my body that made me want to scream, "Hell yea, this is why I'm living!!"
The rest of the night was a mixture of emotions. There were points when I listened, points when I wanted to run out in the street screaming and protesting in the name of love, and times when I simply teared up. There was one discussion about how we could get people on our campuses to listen, care, and act. The only way that people will be able to grasp the pain of others and care enough to do something is if it happens to them, but how do you make people feel the pain of losing a loved one when they haven't. People are dying every second of the day and it doesn't even faze us. It became really hard for me to not burst out into sobs. People are dying. Parents. Children. Brothers. Sisters. Why are we not crying for those lost lives? Why aren't we trying to stop those from dying? Have we become so desensitized to death that life doesn't mean anything to us anymore?
I don't know about everybody else, but I don't want to see hatred continue living in our world.