Live Your Dreams

What do you want to be when you grow up?

No seriously, if you could be anything, what would it be? As children, we were asked this question on a daily basis and the adults around us usually giggled at our answers because they were unbelievably bold! That's because as children we truly believe we can be ANYTHING we want to be! I’ve often asked myself at what point in our lives do we stop believing that. I’ve come to the conclusion that as we grow up and experience life we allow our fears to begin to dictate who we are. Now don't get me wrong.... at some point it is important for us to develop a healthy fear so we can learn that jumping off the monkey bars may not be the best idea! BUT- we should NEVER let fear get in the way of living our dreams.

I've been a dance instructor for several years. Recently, I was asked what lesson have I learned from my students? Without a doubt my answer was to be fearless! I love having conversations with my students during class and my favorite question to ask them is what they want to be when they grow up. As you can imagine...I've heard a variety of answers…..everything from an astronaut, the President, a ballerina, an architect, a mom and many, many more. As adults, I feel it is important for us to encourage children to dream big, to chase their dreams, and to never let anyone tell them they "can't"! Honestly, I despise the world “can’t” and as a dance instructor that word is never allowed in my classroom. Instead, I tell my students they can choose to say either "I can" or "I'll try." Personally, I believe that's the attitude we should have in life. No matter how many times life may knock you down and make you believe that your dreams are unachievable, you have to stand back up, dust yourself off and show the world your "I can" or your "I'll try" attitude!

Many of us may realize how crucial it is for us to take the time to nurture the minds of our youth and allow them to chase their dreams. My fear is that we may overlook the fact that it is equally important to nurture our own minds and remind ourselves that we, too, can dream big! If you’re not living the life you’ve always dreamed of then make a change! Stop letting fear of the unknown get in the way of living your dreams. Instead, look fear in the face and say…. BRING IT ON!

After all, the only true failure is the failure to try!

VALUE: LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

All for one and one for all… United we stand, divided we fall.

All for one and one for all… United we stand, divided we fall.

Is it just me or is everything a competition these days? Now don’t get me wrong, a little healthy competition is always great motivation but just like all good things there is a fine line that we should all be weary of crossing. Our society is divided politically, culturally and economically and we are lacking an effort to blur the lines in order to understand and accept those who differ from ourselves. America has always been known as “The Melting Pot” and I believe that we have a unique opportunity to become a more well rounded society if we could learn to accept and love those who may be a little different. I know this isn't an ideal that can be changed overnight but why not start taking steps in the right direction and teaching our children to love and accept everyone they meet. Even if you don’t necessarily agree with someone, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t RESPECT their opinions or ways of life.

Lets first talk about the divide between women- I was flipping through a magazine the other day and it hit me… the media not only shows an unrealistic portrayal of women but they also feed the competition that we constantly have between each other. There was a headline titled “Who wore it best,” I’m sure you’ve seen it, and that itself is teaching our teenagers that there is always a ‘winner’. Competition is getting out of control and these ideas that we are teaching the next generation is only feeding that problem. Instead we should be teaching them to respect themselves and each other and to root for one another instead of tearing each other apart! 

Now politics… Oh boy! The divide in our country is like a ripple affect… starting at the top. I’ve often wondered why our President and Vice President have the be from the same party. Is it insane to think if we had a representative from each party working together toward a common goal that we would have less of a divide between our country. I personally believe that each party should be represented equally in order to have ideas from each view. To be as young as I am, I feel very strongly about politics, and our political leaders, so I’m not some tree-hugging, lets-all-be-friends-kind-of-girl, but I do believe if we are striving to make our country stronger - it should start at the top! 

As a society, we label ourselves as Republicans or Democrats, blue or white collar, a celebrity or common person, fat or skinny and I could go on for days, instead… why can’t we just say that we are proud to be Americans and to live in a country that allows us the opportunity to choose. Now growing up in the south, I have been surround by some narrow-minded individuals my entire life. I hear racial slurs more than you could possibly imagine and it upsets me to know that although we have come so far as a society, we still have a long trek ahead of us. I personally don’t see race, or religion, or disabilities, I only see an opportunity to make a friend or to learn something new, and that is an ideal that I try and pass along to each person I have the opportunity to speak with. I hope this blog opens your mind to the possibility of a new way of thinking. Let’s work together to empower our next generation, to work toward equality for all, and to embrace both our similarities AND our differences. Remember….UNITED we stand….. divided we fall.  

#VALUES #UNITY #EQUALITY #ACCEPTENCE #COMMONGROUND #COMPASSION

Love Yourself.

I love _________ about myself…...

A sentence that we don’t hear often enough. Living in a “selfie-crazed” society - my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter pages are full of the hashtags- “selfie”, “outfit of the day”, and “no filter” where people are measuring their self worth by how many ‘likes’ they receive per picture. Granted, I am guilty of the occasional selfie, but I try to limit them to important moments in my life and, at times, I probably over share with my followers. Yet, I know that I am a confident and complete woman without the acceptance of those who ‘like’ my photos. Social media, like many other things in this world, can be used for both good and evil. It gives us an outlet to express our creativity and share our exciting outfit successes with our friends and followers, while it also opens the door to bullies and predators. Instead of teaching the next generation how to pose for the perfect selfie, why don’t we teach them to embrace who they are and share with the world what they love about themselves?

I believe that our world is entirely too affected by the Hollywood stars that we try and model
ourselves after. Instead of letting stars like Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardasian be role models for young girls, and unrealistic characters for young men to see as ‘real’ women, we need to empower our youth to embrace their own individuality and be their own kind of beautiful. Love is a word that is tossed around like candy but rarely do we ever use it when speaking about ourselves. I could write a book about the many imperfect things about myself… but what is perfect? Each person is perfectly imperfect and that is what makes each of us truly beautiful. We are all different in our own rights and are given such a wonderful opportunity to live our lives and hopefully touch the lives of others along the way. So I invite you all to join me in shouting what you LOVE about yourself? Ready? Set….Go!

Hello World!

In a society where news and media fill our televisions, social media accounts and radio stations with horror stories of war, inequality, protest and uproar, it is easy to let a generalized negativity dictate our ways of thinking. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe it is extremely important to educate ourselves on current events and the state of our nation, but I also believe that if we don’t make a change in the way we are living, we are heading down a very slippery slope.

I would like to think of myself as both an optimist and a realist. I understand that our world cannot be perfect and that the cliché pageant ideal of “world peace” may seem to many as an unrealistic expectation, but who says we shouldn’t try? As the ever inspiring Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world," and I would say he hit the nail on the head. Some major issues that we face everyday could be resolved if we each took the initiative to make the change. Bullying, rape, violence, self-criticism, racism, gender inequality and so many other issues make up the majority of what we repeatedly hear on our local news stations, but who can change that? WE CAN!

Obviously these are issues that I am very passionate about and what drove me to adopte my personal platform, The Foundation for a Better Life, so that I could start taking steps toward making an impact in my local area. This organization is a non-profit organization that encourages people, young and old, to hold themselves accountable for their own actions and to develop a set of personal values that they will strive to live by. I believe that in order to change the world, and the people in it, we must stress the importance of character education starting at a very early age. Some simple words that we would like to think are parts of our daily language are actually ideals that we tend to take for granted. Words such as, love, determination, ambition, charity, class, equality and gratitude are both words and ideals that could, in fact, change the world.

I could rant for days about how much I LOVE this organization which is exactly why I started this blog. Posting about issues that I believe need to be addressed and hopefully introducing this organization to a broader audience in an attempt to use my voice so that I may ‘be the change’ that I wish to see in the world. I implore you all to follow along, share your stories, and post your opinions on this movement that stresses the importance of character education through Values.com and my personal blog.

Remember, in order to change the world we must STAND UP and STAND OUT, even if that means STANDING ALONE.

To learn more about The Foundation For a Better Life please visit, Values.com.

-With sincere GRATITUDE, LOVE, and “World Peace”

Kacy Kay