Through websites I read often, I found this great website that invited people to write a post about bravery or courage and how it has touched our lives. I could make a list on here a mile long of people that I consider brave. If you know me, you’re probably one of them. I see bravery and courage in everyone. It’s hard to live your truth. I’m touched each day by courageous kids from something as simple as sticking up for a friend to something huge like learning in a second language.
When I think about courage I think about my sister. She has dedicated her life to teaching inner city kids. She lives and works in cities where most people would fear for their lives. I know she doesn’t tell me very many of the truths that she encounters each day because then I would go broke paying for a personal body guard for her.
I do know that in the first city she lived in, there were streets that she wouldn’t walk down because there was a very real and very large chance of being shot. She lived in an apartment building where homeless people slept in the entry way and in the morning she would find crack pipes. One of her roomates was beaten by a group of teenagers for no apparent reason. When a friend was visiting her, her car was stolen. My sister rides a bike and walks everywhere in these towns. She has had countless bikes stolen and someone even chopped down the tree her bike was chained to so they could steal her bike.
As far as I know she doesn’t feel fear walking and riding around these towns. I don’t know if it’s stupidity or courage, but I do know teaching these kids is an enormous act of bravery. I would be too scared to live and teach in these communities whereas she embraces it. She touches her students lives each day and gives them hope of living a better life than what is in their community. She believes with all her being that these kids are worth it and she will change these kids lives and in doing so, will make this community a better place for everyone to live which in turn will make the world a better place.
