I Am Responsible.

These are the facts of my life.

I grew up in middle class America.

I’ve gone to school and continued my education every year since I was 5 years old.

I was given opportunities my entire childhood to play sports, try any musical instrument and get involved with any extra curricular activities I wanted.

My parents loved me, believed in me and supported me in everything I did and they still do.

My mom went back to school in her 40’s so she could get a job at a university that would help send her kids to college.

Because of that, upon graduating from high school, I was able to go to a private Christian University. I was even luckier to receive an education that did more than merely educate its students, but push them towards thinking past tradition, stereotypes, easy answers and half truths. 

I’ve traveled to 8 countries on 3 different continents before my 23^rd birthday.

I’ve been able to see raw poverty, injustice and inequality at an early age and watch my own ignorance and unconsciousness be wiped from my eyes because of it.

I’ve never been molested, raped or physically taken advantage of.

I am a woman.

I am educated.

I am empowered.

But because of the facts of my life, I am a minority in the world of women.

In the world of women…

Babies are aborted before taking a single breath on this earth simply because they are female.

Women and girls are seen as nothing but an expense-another mouth to feed, another body to clothe and another daughter to marry off.

Little girls are forced into marriages to men far more than triple their age when they are as young as 4 or 5 years old.

Women and girls never make it out of elementary school, let alone have the chance go to school in the first place.

Women and girls only dream of going to a university or college and they never see the day where that dream becomes a reality.

Women and girls are seen as nothing worth more than a dishwasher, house cleaner and baby maker.

Women and girls are raped, prostituted, and trafficked all for the pleasure, power and profit of their bodies.

Women and girls are beaten until they are nearly dead by the men in their lives who are supposed to love and protect them. 

Women and girls have allowed themselves to believe the lie that they are just a body and not a brain or a heart or a spirit or a soul.

And because of all of these facts…

I am responsible.

I am responsible to these women in the world-to see more of them go to school, earn college diplomas and become intelligent, strong and passionate people because of it.

I am responsible to the women in the world with no voice- to use mine so they don’t have to suffer in their silence anymore. 

I am responsible to the unborn and unwanted baby girls in the world- to make sure they have a shot at a life and good one at that.

I am responsible to the child brides, the prostitutes, the trafficked, the abused, the uneducated, the disabled, the alone, the missing and the un-advocated for.

I am responsible to myself- to take advantage of the undeserving cards dealt to me and make sure that it doesn’t go to waste on the meaningless and selfish things of the world. To acknowledge every day that I am not entitled to these privileges and that they are a sheer gift. And to use my cards to see one more girl go to school and graduate from college, one less little girl trafficked and one more woman valued for all that she is, from the inside out. 

I am responsible to the ignorant and uninformed- to show them that they can use their privileged hand of cards to make someone else’s life better.

I am responsible to God- to represent His name with honor and truth and to be an usher of His justice, compassion and victory here on earth.

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48