“Different Worlds” was written on my first trip to the Philippines. It was the moment that opened my eyes to a reality I’d never truly seen before. Walking through the streets, I encountered people in desperate need—people begging for help, struggling to survive, living lives so far removed from my own. What struck me most wasn’t just their hardship, but the way they were treated by the very people who came to visit. The tourists seemed to see them as invisible, dismissing them with indifference, perhaps out of discomfort or simply because they were too busy with their own lives. It was a stark reminder of how different the world can be from one place to another.
That day, Little Big Gift was born in my heart. I came back home, filled with a sense of guilt and frustration. I gave away most of my belongings and started living a simpler life—one that felt more in tune with the people I had seen in need. The song “Different Worlds” encapsulates that feeling—the realization that we often live in our own bubble, unaware or indifferent to the struggles of others. It’s about how we can become so focused on our own lives that we forget how connected we all truly are.
The lyrics of “Different Worlds” reflect that mindset of detachment, of someone passing by without acknowledging the pain in front of them. It’s a raw exploration of apathy and the gulf between privileged and underprivileged lives. The narrator, in the song, is removed from the suffering they witness. They walk away, unaffected, feeling they’ve earned everything they have, and that those in need are simply the result of their own choices. But for me, that trip—seeing that contrast—made me realize we all share this world. We all have a responsibility to look out for one another, and that’s what sparked the change in me.