By a fluke of my birth, I was born into this body in these circumstances in this place with these opportunities and privileges, and so here I sit. But by a fluke of their birth, they weren\u2019t given the same privileges as I was.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s not even counting the thousands\u2014 the millions\u2014 of people whose lives may not be over, but who through a fluke of their birth were not given the opportunities and privileges by which their lives could flourish.<\/p>\n

I just earned my undergraduate degrees; I\u2019m going to law school in the fall. How many people could have been world-class lawyers or doctors or engineers or politicians transforming our society but who weren\u2019t given the opportunity to complete their education? Who were put in underfunded school systems that didn\u2019t have the funds or resources to provide a quality education? Who had to drop out of high school? Who couldn\u2019t afford college tuition? Who are so desperately living paycheck-to- paycheck so their children can one day go to school even though they harbor no hopes of themselves seeing a degree in their name?<\/p>\n

When I think about the opportunities I\u2019ve been given in almost 20 years that some people are never given their entire lives, I can\u2019t help but think that perhaps the standards we use to measure if someone\u2019s life is \u201cjust beginning\u201d are just lies\u2014 cold comfort so we don\u2019t have to think too hard about the way our life could have been if not by a fluke of our birth. And the more I think about those names and those dates, I just remember how old I am. Happy birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a few weeks, I turn 20. People keep telling me how young I am\u2014 how my life is just beginning. But today I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":644,"featured_media":37126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1315,1988,843,1656,2347,1651,1360,1528,1,834],"tags":[3026,2322,3025],"yoast_head":"\n