A Challenge

First of all, I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July! It was so nice to spend time with my family. Last week was my first visit back to Pratt. What an incredible first week that was. I was so blessed to have Melissa, Olivia, and Deb  show me around the town.

Upon arrival, I was able to meet my host family with whom I will be staying throughout my year of service when in Pratt. They were so welcoming and I really enjoy staying there. I was able to meet up with some of our sponsors. Our sponsors are so important to us. They are responsible for scholorships, services, and support for Miss Kansas and all of the contestants. We appreciate their support so much. I am so lucky I am the one who has the chance to go around and maintain those relationships, and thank our wonderful sponsors. They are truly incredible people, and I don't know what we would do without them.

Later in the week I was able to go out to the Wildlife and Parks museum and suprise about 57 children involved in a summer recreation program. I had a wonderful opportunity to speak to the students about my platform and read them my book "Trolly the Troll". It never seems to suprise me how many children raise their hands when I ask the question... "Have you been bullied?" Did you know that 1 in every 4 children is bullied? For me, this is such a high number of children affected by this growing epidemic. I think a lot of adults may not realize the type of bullying involved here. Some adults/parents think of physical abuse, when in reality it is mental. Words can be just as painful as a punch in the gut. When asking some of them if they had bullied someone themselves they responded the same way. The majority were very honest and admitted to bullying a sibling or classmate. I think our youth as a whole is so accustomed to this act they don't even realize at times it is wrong, and that something can be done about it. I challenged each of them to change their negative opinions of someone into a positive. If you feel the need to be hateful or say something you know may hurt someone else, think of something positive about that person and say it outloud. I explained that giving someone a compliment rather than tearing them down from within, may actually help you feel more positive about yourself. I would like to challenge you to do the same. Whoever is reading this right now, I want you to think of a time someone said or did something that was hurtful to you. Think about how that made you feel, do you really want to do that to someone else? Whenever you think of something negative or hurtful about someone else, I challenge you to turn it into a positive. Commpliment that person, in turn, you will find that this makes you feel better about yourself and the added bonus is you just made someones day!

"Life it too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so love the people who treat you right, forget the ones who dont. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, then let it. Nobody said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it." Anonymous