#InspireADifference #DiscoveryID #IAD_Chat #HelpUSA HELP USA QUESTION 2: Who in your life inspires you to continue to try to make a difference? Matilda Cuomo, Maria’s mom. She is just the most caring and nurturing and active woman I know, and I believe every one needs a good example in a stellar role model. Matilda Cuomo is that role model for me. She runs a mentoring program through HELPUSA, and there is nothing like success to inspire a person to try and try again. The kids coming out of the mentoring program have all been able to take control of their lives, to get on the right track, to combine education and work and fun and purpose into meaningful plans for their future. That makes me so happy and inspired! I’m inspired to make a difference because that’s just how I was raised. My father used to sit us down for family meetings where we had to talk about our purpose…and we were just kids and a little baffled by the question. But he always guided our responses to somewhat mimic his, which was “to make each day a better day than it was the day before”. My mom was a living example of that purpose, she wasn’t an activist exactly, but she was a nurturing and caring woman, especially keen on breaking racial and country prejudices through cultural interaction. I mean….its a pretty simple directive, to try to make a difference in the world, by bettering whatever situation you can. There is that old houseguest sign “leave the place a little better than when you found it”, and as a military family we were always moving, and my parents insisted we leave each house a little better than we found it. I think the same about the community in which I live…I want to leave each community, each home, each situation a little better than I found it. Sometimes I succeed, and that is the best inspiration ever! To go to a scholarship luncheon at HELPUSA and see these women who were fleeing domestic violence, and literally left their homes with nothing but their most precious belonging…their kids… to see these women climb up onstage and accept their scholarships as they finish their law degree, or nursing degree, is just amazing. Their kids are often in the audience, looking proud as peacocks, and once a little boy actually poked me in the side and said “Thats my mom! She did this for ME!”. And up onstage was this incredible woman, proud and tired and fierce, staring right at him with a smile on her face as she talked about their future. I mean… COME ON! I felt so grateful to be a part of HELPUSA!
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 18:37:54 +0000
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