Kate: Helping Neighbors

I’m very proud to come from Oklahoma. I think lots of people are shocked to hear that. I’m very proud of where I grew up and how I grew up. People think people from Oklahoma are kind of backwards and hokey, but there are a lot of values I got from where I grew up—the value of family, the value of helping your neighbor even if you don’t know them, personally. I really got that from being the descendant of people who lived through the Dust Bowl and people who know what living in Tornado Alley is like—how easily things can just go away. A lot of tornadoes come through Oklahoma and you just have to rally around people and help them rebuild, help them piece their lives back together after they’ve lost everything. Our family never lost anything in a tornado but I’ve seen them and I’ve seen their destruction. A tornado hit the town where my aunt and uncle ranch  and we went and just helped the town rebuild. That was just what you did, you know? I think that’s missing from a lot of places now.

-Kate