I Grew Up On A Ranch With

I Banned Bottled Water From My House - We Have A Water-filter System So You Can Drink From The Tap. We Always Drink Out Of Glass, And Recycling Is A Huge Deal, Which Everybody Can Partake In.

But America Was Built By Optimists. Optimists Like My Friend Amanda, Who Recently Started A Small Business. When She Went To Buy Her Website Address-her First And Last Name-she Found That Someone Already Owned It, But Wasn't Using It. So My Friend Emailed The Owner Of The Site To Ask If She Could Buy It. The Owner Wrote Back.

I Am So Secure In Who I Am. I Really Am! And I'm Not Conceited. I Just Think, 'wow, Okay, That's The Life You Want To Live.' It Wasn't About Who He Chose. I Mean, I Had Moments, 'am I Not Sexy Enough? Am I Not Pretty Enough? Am I Not Smart Enough?' But In So Many Of Those Questions, I Immediately Stopped And Said, 'no, Don't Start Doing That.' Because You Can Get Stuck In That Cycle And You Can Carry On To Other Things.

There's No Amount Of Money That Would Make Me Decide Something For A Career.

In My Family, There Was One Cardinal Priority - Education. College Was Not An Option; It Was Mandatory. So Even Though We Didn’t Have A Lot Of Money, We Made It Work. I Signed Up For Financial Aid, Pell Grants, Work Study, Anything I Could.