Ordinarily Extraordinary

What is the vision of my life I wondered? I wracked my brains to come up with something meaningful, do-able. I pondered the depths of world peace. I journeyed in my mind to a lovely place where female emancipation was the rule, not the exception. I plunged into a landscape where no child goes hungry or abused but dreams of only beautiful things.In each scenario I imagined my role, my place in making these things not just visions but reality.

Yet, I realized suddenly that my future truly lies in my ability as a woman to give. I think this sense of giving is at the core of every female being. Women give constantly. We give of ourselves, our love, our strength, our courage in a myriad of roles, in a plethora of ways. I see myself, therefore, being a giver in the truest sense of the word and I understand the sacrifices that will entail how tough it will be. Nevertheless, I will start with small words that pieced together make a sentence, those sentences making stories, those stories motivating others to move mountains with me, too. And when we give together, woman to woman, woman to child, woman to future, we surely can change the face of the earth. In doing this I think I can change my life and the lives of those around me.

I have been silent for a very long time. Not because I was forced to but because life got in the way. I have something to share and I feel in my bones the need to share it. I care passionately about so many things and I can raise my voice through words to change what I know in my heart to be wrong. I do need a place to start and that is why I am here, trying to secure a place in the Voices of our Future program. I want to learn. I want to gain the tools I need to be a voice for those who are silenced, for those who cannot speak up for themselves. How I do it, in what format it comes I cannot say. But come it will. My inner me tells me so and I believe it. I will do the ordinary but do it extraordinarily well so that other silent hearts will awaken and the revolution will come. I have women around me who understand this need, who also live to change the world in their own unique, large or small ways.

Through the time spent thinking about the assignments you have given I have taken a much needed journey. I have found myself. The girl I thought was lost in the debris of living. She is awake again and her heart is on fire.