I have been lucky to have supportive parents and family throughout my life, parents who are always there when I need them, who care about whether or not I succeed and how I’m doing. Not everybody has that. Not everybody has a lot of things that I was fortunate enough to grow up with. I never worried about food. I never worried about my personal safety. I always had a bed to sleep in (unless we were camping, ha!). I always had parents at home to take care of me, parents at school events, parents at PTA conferences, parents at concerts I was performing in. I always knew that I would be graduating from high school and going to college.  One of the most difficult things I remember learning as a kid is that not every person has had the advantages that I had. I remember learning that there were people in my hometown who didn’t have enough food, or a place to live. I felt awful about that. It’s funny how as you get older you feel less awful…I guess you can’t care about everything all the time though, or you’ll just go crazy.

I think our world would be better if we all tried to imagine how people different than ourselves view the world and are viewed by the world, rather than only caring about ourselves. I know I’m as guilty of this as other people, but it’s something I want to challenge myself to improve on. Rather than judging someone, we should try to walk around in their shoes.

There’s been a lot of civil unrest in St Louis over the past few days. I hope that we as a community can come together and heal, and get some answers to our problems, and work together. I am always hopeful that the future will be better than the past and that people are generally good people and want the best for their communities and the world around them. I don’t presume to know what the answers are though.