On March 10, South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye was impeached from office by the court due to her alleged abuse of power. Let’s just say Korea wasn’t all that peachy about the situation.

I wasn’t exactly peachy, grapey, watermelóney or feeling like any type of fruit initially. As a Korean girl, all I thought was that it was cool that my mother-country had a female president. But that’s all I knew; I didn’t even know Park’s name until this year.

That’s probably why I was surprised when I learned of the immense corruption and extreme kumbaya cult-like religious affiliations Park had. But did I care? Not really. Korea’s around 7,000 miles away from me. That was 7,000 miles too far for me to care.

This attitude was normal for me. I would often sit down and eat a beautiful piece of chocolate cake while observing the US bombing Iraq–or was it Syria? I thought that as long as I had my chocolate cake, nothing else mattered.

But that insensitive lack of care was my issue. Just because an issue does not concern me or is 7,000 miles away does not make it any less important.

I lived life in the moment – not in the inspirational “just girly things” way, but more in the “if it doesn’t affect me, it doesn’t matter” way. I see all these conflicts: the war in Syria, global warming, police brutality and more. Yet I can’t say anything about them or hold a logical position because I’m simply not educated enough.

The world has never been as globalized as it is now, thanks to the internet. Yet, why is it that a majority of people aren’t aware of what’s happening? Why do I care more about Kylie Jenner and her space cowgirl party outfit than Korea’s political uncertainty?

We all walk down the hall with our phones a solid four inches away from our face to avoid awkward eye contact with that person you kind of talked to once at a party but never interacted with again. Instead of waiting for your Tasty food video to load on Facebook, open up a news source, such as CNN, BBC or the Wall Street Journal.

It may not seem as fun as reading Instagram captions, but you’d be surprised at how interesting and powerful you feel with some knowledge. In order to change the world, you have to know what there is to change.

Educate yourself and become aware of world affairs. We’re taught history so we don’t repeat the mistakes we made in the past. We’re living in the midst of history now; the present can teach us more than we think it can.

You never know–we might even be able to trump the wrongdoings around us through our newfound enlightenment.