You asked me why I am so enthusiastic. Well, that’s because I count what I have rather than what I don’t. I have a family, friends, a school, a roof, food, clean water, freedom to express myself and to do what I want to. I think about all the people who have nothing. People who no longer have a family because their country is torn apart by war, people who no longer have a house because it exploded, people who must travel many miles to find—maybe—a better life. I think about small kids who walk miles to school if they even have one, people who walk miles to find water, people who wait in line hours for bread, people who do not have the ‘right’ to express themselves because if they protest they are killed. I think about people who have many more problems than we do and who are still positive, smiling even as they try to keep the tears from coming, and who keep moving. I think about all these people and decide that I too will keep moving.

-Chelsea Carter