Is This Thing On?

eternally bare feet, firmly planted on a soapbox

[thisisoursoapbox]

Let me tell you about my friend Shelby. She is the person who has taught me what it means to actually live life. She has inspired me to choose the road less traveled as my career path. She has shown me that life is not meant to be lived in shame and that square dancing to a live orchestra in the middle of a busy road is the best source of entertainment. This woman showers every passerby with love. She has shown more love to me in the last three years than many people experience in a lifetime. Here's the catch, Shelby has Down Syndrome. And due to our incompetence as a society to accept and cherish her, very few people have had the blessing of her friendship. Yes, my high school was incredibly open to her and treated her very well, but they were unable to see past her condition. They were incapable of seeing her as a teenage girl who is capable of having deep friendships. People oftentimes thank me for being around Shelby, but what they do not realize is that I am the lucky one. So here's to Shelby

[thisisoursoapbox]

two broke cousins with a dream (and a soapbox)

Growing up in a family like ours, we were trained at a young age to be passionate. This passion can take many forms. For our grandparents, they found their passion within Christ. For our fathers, their passion was found in sports. However, our passion is not as easily defined. The type of passion that we possess can not be put in a box, it is so prevalent that it spills into every aspect of our lives.

It may seem strange that this is a joint post. Who is “we”? Well, we are two cousins who have become extremely close over the years. So close that, in many cases, it is easier to just speak as if we are one. We grew up together, specifically, in one another’s back yard. Our houses were separated by a mere 20 feet for the better half of our childhood. The funniest part is, we used to hate each other. It wasn’t until we hit rock bottom that we came together. Thus began the late nights discussions of everything in life from sports, to boys, to the possibility of divine existence. These discussions grew as we did and we found ourselves questioning every aspect of life. We found that these questions were best posed at night over the roar of our open windows as we lost ourselves on winding back roads.

Now we realize that we need a platform other than our beat up cars late at night; we need a platform where we can organize our thoughts and get them out for the world to see. What we have to say is important; it may not matter to you, but these are the very things that make who we are.

XOXO 

Wide Eyed Wanderer and The Openly Ginger