"Rachel's Challenge"

"In 1989, the Miss America Organization founded the platform concept, which requires each contestant to choose an issue about which she cares deeply and that is of relevance to our society. Once chosen, Miss America and the state titleholders use their stature to address community-service organizations, business and civic leaders, the media and others about their platform issues"

My platform is "Rachel's Challenge." Rachel was the first person killed in the Columbine High School Massacre on April 20th, 1999. She lived her life with the philosophy that the world could be changed with a chain reaction of kindness. Treating every single person she encountered with dignity and respect, no matter how they treated her in return, was not an option to her, but a way of life in which she practiced everyday.

After she died, her parents found an outline of her hands on the back of an old dresser, within the hands said, "These hands belong to Rachel Joy Scott, and will someday touch millions of peoples hearts." If that doesn't make chills shoot up your arms I don't know what will! Rachel's Challenge is now a nation wide program that goes around to schools and communities sharing Rachel's incredible story and how the impact of a few kind words can not only change, but save a persons life. To date, Rachel's life has impacted millions of students, teachers, parents, community members and even a few Presidents of the United States.

Ever since I was little, I've always had a passion for people...I just love them! All of them :). I always managed to look on the bright side of every situation. Which, sadly, a lot of people referred to as ignorance...I referred to it as positivity, and what's wrong with that?! Up until a few years ago, I realized a change in my life and in the way I looked at situations and people. I was no longer looking at the bright side all the time which made me not always look for the good in others like I had done my whole life. There was a point where I was very depressed and I didn't realize how I could go back to my old way of thinking, but, I knew that God blessed me with an extraordinary gift of always finding a light that others couldn't see. So, I was determined to restore the gift I was given.

When I was introduced to Rachel's Challenge and the possibility of taking it on as my platform, I was slowly reminded how I was meant to look at all people. It was Rachel that reminded me. Thanks to this angel, I was able to uncover my unbelievable treasure.
Right before her death, she wrote an essay entitled, "My Ethics: My Codes of Life." The excerpt below from her essay is one of the many things about this girl that re-opened my eyes:

"It wasn't until recently that I learned that the first and the second and the third impressions can be deceitful of what kind of a person someone is. For example, imagine you had just met someone, and you speak with them three times on brief everyday conversations. They come off as harsh, cruel, stubborn, and ignorant person. You reach your judgment based on just these three encounters. Let me ask you something...did you ever ask them what their goal in life is, what kind of past they came from, did they experience love, did they experience hurt, did you look into their soul and not just at their appearance? Until you know them and not just their "type," you have no right to shun them. You have not looked for their beauty, their good. You have not seen the light in their eyes. Look hard enough and you will always find a light, and you can even help it grow, if you don't walk away from those three impressions first."

She was a remarkable human being and one of the many things I love is spreading her story in order to help others, which is exactly what she intended.
I will be posting more info on my journey with Rachel's Challenge in my area.

Please visit www.RachelsChallenge.org for more information and to see how you can help and can get involved. It's as easy as smiling at a stranger.