. i am a plow .

                I stepped onto the stairs of my school’s second floor and each step carried more weight than Atlas holding the world. The dread in my face is not noticed by anyone as it usually is. Out of the corner of my eye I see a couple that seems to have been together forever. Best friends at their locker sharing a bit of gossip or secret. I look up and see my friend calling for me and I manage to put on a smile. “Hey you,” I call back and step quickly to her.  As we continue to class, my smile never falters but of course it never has.

 A plow. My whole life seems like it’s just the same and never worth getting up in the morning for. A plow. Everything has been set out and put together for me; like a present once opened you don’t really want. A never-ending replaying script for my day. I don’t feel in control of my own life. Like a plow, you see now.

Chemistry has never really had much of my attention, so I sit and stare out the glass wall watching absolutely nothing. I think of how I became this depressed, as someone would say, and can’t find a reason that hasn’t had an influence on me.  “Excuse me,” my teacher coughs and I turn my head. While staring intently at me she asks, “What is the conversion factor from grams to moles?” I turn my head back and continue to stare out the wall. “I believe it is one mole over the compound’s molar mass,” chirps my friend. “Very good,” and my teacher takes one final look at me and continues her lesson. I feel like this glass wall, you know it’s there but you look right through it. . .Though that is what I thought until I meet you. . .

. it was never really over .

           

      As far as most people know slavery was abolished on January 1, 1863, with the acceptance of the Emancipation Proclamation. Even people may think it’s all in the past; there are many forms of modern-day slavery. All over the world, there is an estimated 7 to 12 million people brought and sometimes even sold into slavery! For me to do this blog, I had to research some information on modern-day slavery. The information I found was just crazy, just like the millions of people that are slaves. Before slaves were usually abducted and forcefully brought to wherever they were to be sold. It is was it happening now, like in the Sudan since an estimated 14,000 people have been abducted since 1983 and counting! In many places thought slaves were once people looking for jobs and a better life and promised one by employers really just looking for cheap labor. In Florida, there are accounts of illegal immigrants and their families (mainly from the inlands of Mexico), brought here in hopes of a better life and forced to work on farms and orchards for employers that pay little to nothing! In places like Europe, parts of Africa, and Asia, slavery is still huge. In a 1992 law passed by the Pakistani government, landlords are barred from offering loans in exchange for work or to hold workers hostage to their debts, but in reality that is majority of slaves are brought into the trade and in India, Kidnapped from their villages when they are as young as five years old, between 200,000 and 300,000 children are held captive in locked rooms and forced to weave on looms for food. I can’t even begin to think how I would handle that situation to be alone and scared. Slavery is never a choice and the people subjected to this find it hard to find their way out. Throughout the various countries around the world, organizations have been made to ensure that this can be stopped, like the International Labor Rights and Education Fund which helps children find their way out of the trade along with many more organizations. Like I said it’s been over 100 years since the Emancipation Proclamation was signed but in our world today slavery is still flourishing.