Dear Ellie:

I’m still reflecting on my trip to Brazil and I can’t wait until you’re old enough to handle an international flight (well for both of us to be able to handle it). There’s so much I want you see and experience. I hope you start earlier than me and go further when it comes to travel because there’s so many different things out there in the world. But what I realized most on this last trip was that we as humans are a lot more alike than we often realize and so much power and peace is lost when we forget that. There are people everywhere who struggle, who smile, who love, and who dream. I had a chance to visit a family in a favela in São Paulo and I was so in awe of how the mother’s story was to so many mothers I’ve had the chance to work with. I don’t say that to take anything away from her because no ones experience is made from a cookie cutter mold and everyone deserves to be acknowledged for who they are and how they’ve experienced life but it helps to remember we aren’t alone either. In that moment standing in her home listening to her story, even as she told it in a language I could barely understand, I started thinking of how I could help and what brought strength to others I had met with similar stories. Just imagine what we’re missing by assuming we have nothing to offer each other because we’re different. Different skin tones, different countries, different incomes they are all just categories and no one fits neatly into just one. Even as I looked at the people around me in Brazil I realized that so many of them, had history taken their ancestors on a different journey, could’ve have been my friend, colleague, or classmate. Sometimes all that separates us is geography, or religion, or what we thought was right. But I promise to challenge you to look for the similarities and the common ground. Anyone can point out differences but it takes something more to look past those and find a connection that could serve a better purpose and in the end make you a better you. 

Love you always, 

Mommy

P.S. I know that with glitz, glamour, and celebrity being so highly celebrated it seems like we’re all on different playing fields; and in some cases that’s true. But you can’t spend your life worried about how different you are, or how you’ll never have what some else has. Truth is it doesn’t matter. We are all more alike than we may like to admit but we each have a unique path to take. Our differences can help us stand out while our universal similarities can bring us together…celebrate them both.