I remember that my mom, my dad and I would play different roles in mock debates, where one of us would be the moderator, one of us would be my dad - frequently not my dad - and then one of us would play his opponent.
Changing laws and changing the political dialogue, while necessary, is insufficient to ensure that bullying stops; to ensure that every young person is supported by their parents and their teachers as they question who they are and they discover who they are regardless of the sexuality.
The first sort of big present I remember getting from Santa Claus was quite a small telescope that I remember going into our backyard with my parents and figuring out how to assemble, and staring at the night sky, just for hours, with both of my parents.
My father has always been such a doer.
We need women who are at the head of a boardroom, like at the head of the White House, at the head of kind of major scientific enterprises so that little girls everywhere can then think, you know what? I can do that, I want to do that, I will do that.
I'm really grateful I grew up in a house in which media literacy was a survival skill.
I never once doubted that my parents cared about my thoughts and my ideas. And I always, always knew how deeply they loved me. That feeling of being valued and loved, that's what my mom wants for every child.
I definitely taught my parents how to text and how to charge their phones.
Every day at some point I encounter some sort of anti-American feeling.
I have a boyfriend and a dog, and I still haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up.
I was a vegetarian for 10 years and a pescetarian for eight. Then I woke up one day when I was 29 and craved red meat. I'm a big believer in listening to my body's cravings.
Determination gets you a long way.
I had seen people who had lost everything and everyone they loved to war, famine, and natural disasters.
My grandmother, who passed away at the beginning of November, had a core adage in her life that 'life is not about what happens to you but about what you do with what happens to you.' She recently had been cajoling me and challenging me to do more with my life. To lead more of a purposefully public life.
Millennials regularly draw ire for their cell phone usage. They're mobile natives, having come of age when landlines were well on their way out and payphones had gone the way of dinosaurs. Because of their native fluency, Millennials recognize mobile phones can do a whole lot more than make calls, enable texting between friends or tweeting.
I hope to make a positive, productive contribution, as cheesy as that may sound.
That's who my mom is. She's a listener and a doer. She's a woman driven by compassion, by faith, by a fierce sense of justice and a heart full of love. So, this November, I'm voting for a woman who is my role model, as a mother, and as an advocate. A woman who has spent her entire life fighting for families and children.
Running is the one part of my life in which I fundamentally feel like the observer instead of the observed.
