This Is What is Beautiful to Me
Today, I’m starting this post with a link.
That link above allows you to vote for my school in the Kohl’s Cares contest on Facebook. As someone who has watched her world unravel slowly, the funds from this could change everything. If we were to win this contest, our lives would be turned upside down. Things that we had never even dreamed of would suddenly be possible, all because people are voting for us and thinking of us. Now is one of those times that I can’t use my words to put on paper (or in this case, on the computer screen) how I feel about this. I love the people I go to school with, I love our building, I love the spirits that fill it.
We’ve struggled with so much. We’re backwoods, rough and tough… but it’s hard living here. The paper mill which controlled everything has shut down. Every night, I’m thankful that I’ll be at college by the time the severance pay really runs out. I can’t even bear the thought of watching the loud and proud area I’ve known my whole life wither into a shell of what it once was.
One of the only ways we can change things is through education. If we educate our boys, then they won’t grown up to work in a paper mill or work at VDOT like their fathers do (or did). They’ll find something better, they’ll make something better of themselves. If we educate our girls, they’ll be more than the desperate housewives who are now faced with the idea of having to work to earn money for their families when they haven’t worked a day in their lives, they’ve always stayed at home.
The fact that this contest has ignited hope in me means so much to me, I would love to see us win. I realize that this is most likely a pipe dream, but I’m hoping this pipe dream will come true.
