Courageous Conversations

 One of the most profound, and perhaps saddest, realizations I’ve had growing up is the shift from the question “What did you do about it?” to “Why bother?” I believe I have always been an advocate, even before I had the language for it. If I trace the origins of that identity, I find it scattered across the quiet but powerful influences that shaped me; my parents, my teachers, the Sabbath school stories that taught me what it means to be human. They taught me to speak up against bullies, which later became my love for advocacy and poetry; to stand against injustice, which grew into my passion for the law; to show up for people, which shaped me into a mentor and, despite my attempts at being “ cool and mysterious ,” to be someone my friends would call warm and bubbly. They also taught me to forgive, though that is a lesson I am still learning. If I had to distill all of those lessons into one recurring idea, it would be this: I grew up being faced with one question, again and aga...