Once upon a time there was a little girl living in a Kingdom far far away. This little girl loved to be outside, play with her friends, read books, and hear her mother father and aunt tell her stories of people and places very different from her own. One day, when she was about five, her father took her to a meeting where people in the village were talking about how come there were so many children in the kingdom who were living in poverty and what they could do to change it. As the little girl sat at the table with all the adults (who weren’t as scary as one might think) she drew, and she listened. Then one of the adults at the table looked at her and said, “Little girl, what do you think?” Her answer is irrelevant, but this little girl knew that this was something big. That an adult had taken the time to ask her what she thought about kids her age living in a type of poverty that she couldn’t even understand and that this table full of adults genuinely wanted to hear what she had to say.
As this little girl grew she thought she had super powers. She could tell when her mother or father were upset before anyone else could. She could feel when children at school were feeling left out. And she knew that sometimes all it took to make her friends, her parents, or her teachers feel better was to smile at them. She loved playing in the field behind her house with the other children living on her street. They would run through the bushes with swords fighting off fire breathing dragons, build forts for protection as they became the first settlers in a new land, caught tadpoles and watched them develop into frogs, climbed trees to watch for pirates who were trying to attack their ships, and she was always coming up with new games for them to play.
On Sunday mornings she would sit in her basement and cry. What she saw on t.v. made her feel sad and she didn’t understand. Children who were the same age as her didn’t have families to tell them stories. They didn’t get to school. They didn’t have food to eat or water to drink. She would watch World Vision and cry because now that she knew what was happening she couldn’t look away. Her mother found her one Sunday and asked her what was wrong. The littler girl said, “Mommy I don’t understand. How come these children don’t have food, and don’t have water? Why can’t they go to school? Where are their parents? And how come I have all of these things.” The little girls mother then said “Well what do you think we should do about it?” The little girl and her mother phoned the people and World Vision and got two children that they would sponsor and the little girl wrote them stories and letters every week. The little girl also started saving her money that she put in a separate piggy bank. When Christmas time came around her mother and her father took her to BJ-Supertoy Sales with all of her money (which they had gladly matched) and she picked out toys to give to children in Winnipeg who might not be getting toys under the tree. She remembers walking into Winnipeg Harvest with two garbage bags full of toys and how happy the man who took them was to see her. It felt better than all the candy she could have bought with that money would have tasted, and she knew it was something she needed to do for a long long time.
One day she was outside playing by herself (she was about 6 now) and a group of boys who were a bit older than her were playing soccer in the field behind her house. She was excited. She had never really played soccer before. In fact just last week she got her first nose bleed when she walked onto the soccer field at school and became an innocent victim of an undirected ball She went up to the boys and asked whose team she could be on. The boys looked at her then they looked at each other and then they laughed. “You know girls can’t play soccer they said.” And then they went back to playing. She ran home crying. Boys can be mean you know. When she got home her dad asked her what was wrong. She told him that the boys said, “Girls don’t play soccer, but I really wanted to play Daddy. I really wanted to play soccer.” The next day she was signed up for soccer and had her first practice the next week.
Her dad believed in her. Her parents listened to her even though she was small and knew ‘nothing’. She was told by adults that she could and more importantly should do anything that she wanted to. All of these things started her on an adventure that she didn’t fully understand at the time, and likely still doesn’t understand now.
I am lucky to have parents who support everything I do. Without showing me but letting me find my own way and being there for me to answer questions, and most often ask more; making me think about why I am thinking about what I am thinking about. My mom tells me a story of when I was younger and I refused to sleep in my bed or eat anything but rice and water because that’s what other kids had to do in Africa (once again thanks to too much Sunday morning World Vision). I get embarrassed when my mom or dad tell me stories like those because now I have a better understanding (along with an increased skepticism) of organizations such as World Vision. BUT it was because of my exposure to those images, those stories, those voices (that I'm sure you are all aware of) at such a young age (coupled with some curiosity and empathy and the other combination of characteristics that together make me who I am) that has brought me to this place in time, and in my life. I didn’t really include any of the stories or events occurring between then and now but the first 7 years of my life laid the foundation….to where I am now, and to where I’ll go in the future.
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