About a Girl...

This photo was originally a "pic of the week", but her eyes beg for more than a caption, no? Myself? I see defiance. In the very best meaning of the word. The one that says "bring it". What do you see?

I have a habit, let's call it, of meditating on a "day in the life of" certain people who strike a chord in me. Recently, while organizing some of my World of Difference photos and jewelry to write about for this blog and add to the Etsy store, I lingered on both her picture and some Maasai jewelry, which happens to be her tribe. I couldn't help but get pulled behind those eyes.

I imagined myself a young woman of the Maasai people. At night I prepare food for my family, tend after children, and craft jewelry and goods to sell to the tourists. When it comes time to sleep I lay with my brothers and sisters in a ten-foot-square hut with cow dung walls. The morning comes and I spend the day hawking traditional items of my people to those who visit the Mara, pleading for them to buy something, knowing my people need this money to survive. One day soon I will marry to become one of several wives of my husband, and I will bear children who will follow in the footsteps of my ancestors and in my own.

But...what if...?

What if, as I see behind those defiant eyes, there is a passion burning and churning and rumbling inside of her. Something she doesn't quite understand but which consumes her every thought. To do something, to be something...different. To learn to heal and become a doctor. To master law and represent her people. To nurture the minds of the young and teach. To do anything she can think of and some things she doesn't yet know exists.

What if...?

It all starts with an education. School will ignite that flame inside of her and the more she learns the more that fire will grow.

Imagine the possibilities.

Imagine HER possibilities.


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Photo credits:Thanks to Chelsea for taking the picture and to Scott for making it even prettier!