When I first knew that I was pregnant, I hoped for a healthy baby, the wisdom to raise her right, and a warm and safe and caring world in which she could grow up, full of friends and family, wonder and love.

She was born just one month after 9/11, when it felt as though there was a shadow over the world. Her generation knows a lot of shadows, and as I write this, it’s clear that she is growing up in a society that still doesn’t value all its members.

The thing about growing up is that it never stops until you are dead. Learning and growing and changing doesn’t stop with high school or even college. That’s when it really begins.