In typical fashion, I'm going to cover something of national importance on a Hutchinson-related site. I'm certain you're all used to that by now. I hope this post can generate some discussion. 

xenophobia  [(zen-uh- foh -bee-uh, zee-nuh- foh -bee-uh)]

An unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign or different. [source]

There was a time in the United States when women couldn't vote. There was a time in the United States when black people couldn't attend the same schools as white people, eat in the same restaurants, etc. You know all that, I’m sure. We, as a nation (at least a good majority of us) look back at these times as low points in this great nation's history. Americans just like you and me being deprived of such basic inalienable rights is hardly something to be proud of. 

As I was working out on the elliptical machine at 5:30AM the other morning at the YMCA watching CNN news, I was “pondering” and listening to a story on some miraculous research that some medical genius had come up with recently.  He/she had studied people with lots of money and their “true” happiness.  I didn’t catch it all, but in the end it boiled down that in this research some “rich people” had narrowed their material items to only 100 items of their choice, making their life simpler and turned to enjoying their family and experiences more by doing this.  They started taking vacations and enjoying the world and, again, experiences, more than material things.   I apologize for not catching the whole story but think that was the jest of it.  Simplicity was a big part of the change in their lives.  

I decided to write a letter to my future self. 

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Dear Baylee of age 30,

I know things change, but these are the things I hope you’ve accomplished by now.