We are now in the new year of 2017, a year of hope and new beginnings. 2016 was a difficult year for many in our nation and throughout the world. We have faced acts of violence, hatred, and deceit. We have endured through storms and other national and global disasters. But through it all, we have been blessed to see yet another year. This is the opportunity to inspire change, to implement change, and to start a movement of change. It starts with one; one who will carry the torch that will ignite a fire that will burn throughout an entire neighborhood, community, city, state, nation, and eventually the world.

Let us take a personal responsibility to not leave it up to anyone else to carry the torch but to become the pioneer of change within ourselves.