One summer I went to a ranch in South Dakota to teach mentally and physically disabled kids to ride horses. The girl I got assigned to never showed up so I never got to know one kid that trip. I got to know them all! It was a wonderful experience to see them get up on their horses and ponies and knowing you taught them how to mount and steer the horse. Seeing that kind of growth and noticing how ecstatic they got about the progress they were making, it's kind of hard not to want to turn the memories of their gleaming smiles into a career.
I'm participating because I wish to end this stigma that Atheists don't have morals. When I tell people I'm atheist they ask if I have morals. Of course I have morals! It's possible to both not believe in God and be a gracious and good human being. I don't think it takes much to be a decent person. I think people are naturally capable of loving and choosing good over evil without even knowing God but we've built around a society where you can seemingly only have one but not the other. Those smiles of the children I helped at the ranch are burned into my memories and to get my PhD in pediatric clinical psychology with an emphasis and art therapy has been a dream of mine ever since. I'm set out to make a difference in this word because I have willed myself to do it. Not any deity. Me.
