Restoring my faith in humanity.

I try to surround myself with generally good people. People who are helpful and generous and happy people. But that's not always the case, and honestly it's hard to be that way myself sometimes. And I lose a little bit of faith in mankind every day. There's a whole list off the top if my head of things that disappoint me like: the fact that women are paid significantly less than men for equal(if not better) work, I'm not sure racism, sexism, and stereotyping will ever disappear, or the fact that people think a whole lot less of themselves than they deserve. But every once in a while, I find inspirational things that are just so freakin cool and it makes me feel a little better about the goodness in the world.

Like, these people for instance. 

The message of the whole video is amazing(and it was shared by a fantastic former teacher of mine, who is expecting a baby with her wife soon), but the part that really got me is that one man goes out of his way to ask the judgmental waitress if she believes in Jesus. In conservative Texas, he might as well have slapped her in the face. But then he goes on to explain that it is not her place to judge. And when asked about it later he just explains that he thinks silence is the problem today. "Christians" are quick to judge, but forget the "love one another" part too quickly, if you ask me.

Or these people. Who are accepting and gracious, and show the greatest side of athletics in general. 

My favorite quote from this video is "I was just raised to treat everyone the way I want to be treated." Because I know that my parents would be so proud to be this kid's parents. I hope that if given the opportunity, I would make the same call this kid did. And it just brought to mind kids from my small town high school who wouldn't have done it. But it brought to mind more who would have. Kids who were raised with the best of intentions. And the fact that this kid took this opportunity to show the world and media that his parents made him the person that he is shows so much gratitude and respect. I respect that, because I owe all that I am to the people who raised me. Not just my parents, but my whole family and all my coaches who have taught me all kinds of lessons along the way.

In the end, I guess it restored my faith in myself. And though I think I'm pretty remarkable sometimes, in reality I'm on the same playing field as everyone else. Maybe they're all seeing the same things.

xox