By Brianna Forsman 
My sweet child, this world isn’t what I dreamed for you.
Life has always had its fair share of hardships and sorrows, but in recent years, it has felt a little extra heavy. Perhaps it just hits differently now that I’m a mother. You see, I spent my whole life dreaming of you. I always envisioned carefree days in the summer sun, relaxing family nights around the dinner table, and watching you launch into the world with pride in my eyes. I never thought those dreams would be so disrupted by the chaos of the world. I didn’t know it would actually be fear behind my eyes each time you stepped out of my arms.
Every day, headlines race across my screen. More heartache. More fear. More hate. More sorrow. And sadly, very little hope. It has been this way since you were tiny. From the time you were born, the world went a little extra crazy, and the plans and dreams I had were shattered by circumstance.
It certainly wasn’t the plan to spend the first years of your life in a pandemic, hidden behind closed doors, instead of exploring and adventuring. It still breaks my heart that you were more accustomed to seeing worried eyes peeking above masks than exchanging warm smiles and handshakes when you encountered humanity.
I never wanted to raise you in a time when childhood was wasted in front of screens, and adolescence was marked by the pressures and opinions of internet strangers. The crushing weight of social media and the impossible standards of the online world were never in the picture my heart had painted for you. I didn’t see artificial intelligence taking over where creativity, resilience, and ingenuity once existed.
I didn’t want you to be born in such evil times. Where politics took precedence over people. When no one seemed to care about right and wrong, and the lines were so blurred that you could hardly tell them apart, even if they did.
I never would have believed that the American dream would be reduced to simply staying alive when you leave the house. I mourn the loss of safety and security and the fact that everywhere feels vulnerable to violence—school, the supermarket, large gatherings, even church.
I ache that you are growing up in a world where hate, fear, and distrust run wild. Where division and animosity rule. Where every opposing view is seen as a threat instead of an opportunity.
The world you are inheriting is so far from the one I dreamed of bringing you into that, at times, I think I could crumble from the weight of raising you in it.
I can’t fix this world for you, but I can raise you to change it. I’ll teach you to choose kindness over cruelty and to respond with compassion over contempt. To look for the good and to be the light. To find joy in the happy little moments and to rise to help in the hard ones. I’ll lead you to look out for the outcast, to fight for the weak and hurting, and to boldly stand for what is right, even if you stand alone.
Together, we will work to be a part of the solution instead of just screaming about the problem. Because this sad, dark, angry world is nothing like the one I envisioned bringing you to.
But, little by little and step by step, we can change that. You are the future world, dear one. And in you, I see love. I see light. I see hope. In you, I see a glimpse of the world I dreamed for you.
by Sherry White 
by Jessica McCaslin 
