Regardless of your views and political opinions there is one thing that all people can agree on right now, the world is changing. I will not say if I believe that it is changing for better or for worse, but it is changing. Everywhere I look, everything I read, every person I talk to is talking about the change of the world. Some say the choices made and the changes now occurring needed to happen a while ago while others say these changes are choice against love, equality, and peace. Both groups are correct that things are different and things are changing.
As a junior in college thinking about my future is a very common thing women my age do. Prior to this week I knew what I wanted my future to hold. Upon graduation I have planned on joining the Peace Corps and teaching abroad for those two years. I would then return to America where I would live in Iowa on the same farm that my dad grew up on. I would marry a boy from DeWitt, we would live together with our children on the farm with a dog or two, and I would be a teacher at St. Joe's Grade School in town.
But now as things change I begin to wonder how my plan will change. Will I be allowed to go over seas to help those who need it? What kind of world will I return to? I want to raise my children the way that my parents raised me. I want to teach them to love all people and to treat others as they want to be treated. I want them to hold what their faith teaches them close to their hearts and in their minds when they make choices and when the interact with others.
But the number one things is that I don't want my children to ever have to live in fear. I don't want them to worry about who they're playing with on the playground or what is going on around them in the world. Push recent politics aside and just think about the world we live in. I don't want my children to ever enter into their school or a public space worried about their safety or if anyone is going to hurt them while they are there. I want my children's biggest fear to be the "monsters" under their bed and I want their most rebellious act to be sneaking a cookie before dinner.
As we head into this time of change, I will continue to pray that God will guide me to always do what is right, to treat others how I want to be treated, and to keep looking forward to the future while enjoying every single day. We can't control the decisions or actions of others, but we can control our own and every amazing thing that has ever happened in our world began because one person saw what the right thing to do was and did it - be that person everyday.
