How many hours do you have in your day?

For most people, the answer would be a very simple one; a fact that they learned back in the third grade, perhaps lower.

24 hours.

But for one reason or another, most people seem to be on a completely different time zone.

Think about another fact, one that isn't quite such a straightforward answer.

How many times today has someone told you that "they were too busy" for you, or how many people have you yourself told that to?

I aam eighteen years old and a senior in high school. And for those of you who don't quite understand how much time it takes to be a student in the 21st century, I can tell you firsthand what an experience it is.

I wake up at six o'clock in the morning. I go downstairs and eat breakfast, get dressed, then drive my car to school at about 7:30. Mind you, I live about 20 minutes away from the school, 25 minutes with rush hour traffic. And especially with my personality, time is of the essence when making my morning commute.

School for eight hours. Typical American school day. 8:00-3:00, pretty precise. I don't take AP classes, but I do take extracurricular courses. I have English and math, the obvious classes, and then, with my position as co-editor of my school's newspaper, two hours a day of journalism. Then there's debate, an activity not for the weak of heart and a commitment that not only takes up most every week night for work nights, but you can almost be guarenteed to not see sunlight on Saturdays because you will be stuck in humid high school classrooms all day long.

How about extracurriculars that aren't a class?

I'm the stage manager for an upcoming play at our school, A Simple Task.

No, that's the name of the play.

Rehearsals every weekday until shownight, plus getting costumes and scripts and God knows whatever else you need in a play.

I'm usually pulling my car in the driveway right around 6 o'clock at night. By now, my mom has dinner ready, and our family is old-fashioned in the sense that we actually sit down and eat together.

It's shocking, really.

After supper is over, I usually get in the shower and then start doing my homework around 7:00-7:30.

And just as I'm singing the last word on my English essay with a flourish, it's ten o'clock and it's time to get some much-needed sleep.

I love my day. I love my life. I wouldn't be doing any of these activities if I didn't enjoy doing them, because what's the point of that?

Now, I ask you to go through your schedule and think about everything that your day entails. Down to the last minute. Do you watch any news before you eat dinner? Do you even eat dinner? What time do you usually get home?

Now I'm going to ask you one more time to think over your day.

Have any of those moments been about doing something for somebody else?

Right now, there are 1,750,000 homeless people in America. 12,000,000 of them are children. Fourty percent are war venterans who fought for our freedom. Twenty-five percent are employed Americans who's incomes don't suffice.

Jon Bon Jovi, an American rock icon, with hits such as "Livin on a Prayer," "You Give Love a Bad Name," and "It's My Life," with one of the busiest schedules that could be possible in anybody's life, can answer that question proudly.

Bon Jovi has his own foundation that he is President of, the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, that knows and understands these dire statistics, and has actually stepped out into the community, dressed in their dirtiest work boots and their sloppiest t-shirts, and built houses and communities that invites these people off of the streets of New York and into brand new lives that provide them with the things that they need.

Including the President himself.

Too many times, you hear stories of rock stars donating millions, even trillions of dollars out of their own wallets for a charity that they believe in. But while works are out there going into Africa or into soup kitchens, these superstars are actually nowhere to be seen.

"There are those who advocate, and those who do," Jon Bon Jovi says. "[...] There is a difference between using a soapbox and actually getting your hands dirty. I've spent not only years and millions of dollars but hours and hours and hours of my time doing what I do, and that's very different from what anyone else is doing."

Right now, that idea is being lost on our society. The idea that us, our hands, are more powerful than we think they are, and that you can always find the time to help somebody in need, is being shoved in the backseat. Either by school, by work, by family. Circumstances that we don't think we have the power to control.

Probably none of us have the money that Jon Bon Jovi does. Nobody has the same that he's built for himself. I know I don't. I'm eighteen, and the ramen noodle years are about to be upon me very quickly.

But I can tell you that every single person sitting here in the audience has the power he does. And by that, I mean the power of the human spirit; the power to change lives and help each other and get our hands dirty and be proud of the work that we did.

Everybody here has the power to pull somebody aside and lend them a conversation. To ask them how they're really doing; to change their world with just a few worlds of encouragement. And that may sound like the corniest, most over-used statement in the world, but let me tell you that there have been no truer words than that.

Everybody here has the time, the ability, the power, to volunteer for just one day. For bringing a toy up to the Salvation Army and seeing a child's face light up because that is his one gift for Christmas. For stocking a few cans of soup in a food pantry for the families that need it most. For giving somebody a hug when they are trying to hide what they're feeling.

You have so much more power than you think you do. But time, time seems to be the one thing that stands in everybody's way. "I'm too busy," "I'm so busy," seems to be America's slogan as we get deeper into the 21st century.

Sadly, Americans have started spreading apart from eachother and have stopped caring about the people around them; instead focusing on their own personal time, which seems to be so much more valuable than anyone else's. But you, we us, hold the power to change all of that. "Be an individual, stand out, make your voice heard," and be a leader in your community, your school, wherever you find yourself. Because each time you reach out to give, more and more people's hearts are being changed for the better.

I want you all to really take a look at your own lives, and the time that you are given each day. The saying is true that "Everyday is a gift," and the way that you choose to spend yours can have amazing effects that can transfor the world, or those hours can vanish into the air, never living up to their true potential.

"Miracles happen everyday. Change your perception of what a miracle is, and you'll see them everyday."