Like many WSU students, I spent my Saturday night with friends staying up until 3 a.m. Unlike many of my peers, however, I was sleeping on the ground in Spokane with 200 others, mostly strangers, worrying about waking up with frostbitten toes.

The nonprofit group Invisible Children held its international rally, The Rescue, on Saturday. People from 100 cities around the world packed their belongings on their backs, walked to an assigned outdoor space (the lawn of Lewis And Clark High School in my case) and spent the night under the stars, waiting for the media and “the moguls” to show. The point of the rally was to involve people with power in the fight for Ugandan children who have been abducted into Joseph Kony’s rebel army and forced to kill.

Each city had three goals – raise money, get media attention and have an important figure attend to show support. We were not supposed to leave until we were rescued, to imitate the struggle of the invisible children who have been waiting more than 20 years for people to show up and save them.

In Spokane, I started out pumped. I was “making a difference,” road-tripping with friends and getting out of Pullman for a night. Then it got cold. I started adding layers and looking around for a stray celebrity/politician, hoping to spot Tom Cruise or Gov. Chris Gregoire strolling around Spokane at 10 p.m. on a Saturday. As we got texts from friends in Portland being rescued by people from “Little People, Big World,” I felt our collective focus shift from Ugandan children and playing frisbee, to getting rescued before it started raining and we had to unroll our sleeping bags.

Then, organizer Carli Clements said something that radically changed my thinking. She told us we were beginning to experience the apathy that people in Uganda suffered from for 20 years and were still living under at that moment. No one cared about 200 kids sleeping in a park in downtown Spokane, and no one cared about tens of thousands of families in Uganda ripped apart by war. What doesn’t impact us doesn’t move us to action.

I began to realize our experience was nothing compared to the invisible children. I may have been cold, but I had two blankets, a sleeping bag, a tarp and about four layers of clothing between me and the film of frost that accumulated on us. I had a family at home, I had food, and besides a police helicopter doing a searchlight pass over our vicinity, I had no real concerns about my safety.

Also, most importantly, I could leave. Should my toes get too cold, I could forget my commitment – get in my friend’s car and be in a warm bed in 15 minutes. I chose to put myself into a 24-hour tough situation, and I could choose to take myself out. Meanwhile, thousands of children half my age live in a horrifying situation without an option. I believe I left our campsite this morning with new goals.

Spokane is still not rescued. People will take shifts at the campsite as their work and school schedules allow. This includes the dedicated ones from Seattle who spent the night traveling to be our backup. The Spokane group moved to City Hall on Sunday afternoon in hopes of getting Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers’ attention before this morning.

So fellow students, let’s consider breaking out of the apathy bubble we were fortunate enough to be raised in. Let’s consider what we want our lives to be about and consider doing more than simply “raising awareness” and donating our pocket change.