People tell you, especially when you’re a kid, to break out of your comfort zone.

Your parents tell you to try new things, your teachers encourage uniqueness and everyone else just tells you to try to make a difference.

Looking at my life now, I never followed most of their advice. I’m stuck in a bubble of classes and alcohol, finding it simpler to slip into a pattern of seeing the world as only Charleston and my own problems.

I never thought much about changing that until this year, but a life of never looking past my own schedule got to me.

I read an article in the September/October issue of Mother Jones that showed me I should have changed how I see things a long time ago.

The magazine told the tragic story of Rachel Corrie, a pro-Palestinian activist from the United States, who fought a battle in Egypt that really wasn’t her problem.

In March, Corrie, then 23, was plowed under a bulldozer in the Gaza Strip. She had joined the International Solidarity Movement, helping Palestinians resist Israeli occupation. The crushing machine was headed for one of her friend’s homes.

The article questions whether she’s a martyr or simply an idiot for leaving the United States and going up against an Israeli bulldozer, citing some Americans were skeptical of her motivations following her death.

“If Corrie thought that a white, American, female college student putting her life on the line could somehow change hearts and minds, she would, in death, be a little more than a news blip …” the article said.

Some witnesses of Corrie’s death said she just lost her footing in front of the bulldozer. Palestinians called her a martyr.

Something, or maybe a lot of things, encouraged Corrie to leave her bubble, travel to a different country for a cause she believed in and even lead demonstrations against the current U.S. administration.

Mother Jones implies Corrie’s idea to join the movement spurred from attending Evergreen State College in Washington, known for its “left-wing orientation.”

However, Palestinian families that knew her said they will remember Corrie for her generosity, humor and bravery.

Corrie died, but she is on one extreme of living outside her comfort zone. She stepped into a conflict she could have easily only read about in her hometown newspaper.

The Palestinian families could have just as easily been describing any student on Eastern’s campus who ever did something for someone else.

A student’s generosity in donating to a church project, a volunteer’s humor in making the local soup kitchen crowd laugh and someone’s bravery for standing up for something that isn’t their problem, all reflect Corrie’s actions in some sense.

According to Mother Jones, Corrie was too easily forgotten, even though there are still efforts to push for a U.S. Congressional investigation into her death.

“And Corrie herself has faded into obscurity, a subject of debate in Internet chat rooms and practically nowhere else … no matter what one thinks of Corrie, her death should have prompted more of a conversation.”

I don’t really talk about Corrie with my friends, but I do take her life as an example to reach out, even though I don’t completely believe in her cause.

Volunteer; besides Teen Reach, there’s several organizations in the area that need help. Read the news more and see what other places besides college towns are up to.

Magazines might not write about you, but you would have stepped outside a bubble of simple self-interest. When you only have to worry about yourself, the world is simpler, but do you make a difference?