Whose Auntie Lu are YOU?

April 29, 2021

When I was growing up in Cranford, NJ, my elderly neighbor, whom I called "Auntie Lu," had an inexplicable, unshakeable conviction that I had an important destiny. "You're going to be President of the United States someday," she told me when I was 5 years old, 9 years old, 14 years old. Each time, I'd have a different answer: "No, I'm going to be a teacher" (or a neuroscientist, or a programmer, or whatever the career du jour was then). "That's fine too," she'd reply, smiling. "You can do that while you're President." She never actually pressured me to go into politics, of course: The "president" line was just her way of conveying her confidence that I could do anything I set out to do, and that somehow I'd find a way to be good for the world.

Everyone needs an Auntie Lu in their life.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of when I started creating KidsOutAndAbout.com, just before my daughter Ella was born. Even back when KOAA was just a small community website for the Rochester, NY area, I could feel Auntie Lu metaphorically sitting on my shoulder, whispering in my ear. "This will be helpful for so many," she would say. "It will lift up communities of people who are working hard to create opportunities for kids and families. Keep at it!"

I wish I could tell Auntie Lu about how each year millions of web visitors find out about great stuff for their kids to do on KidsOutAndAbout's lists and calendars, and how tens of thousands of organizations spread the word about what they offer to families, and how hundreds of thousands of newsletter readers will see today's column celebrating how she had lifted me up when it counted. I think she'd take great satisfaction in KOAA's mission to help communities, organizations, and individuals be visible to each other as we work together to build a strong future.

Every tiny interaction with every young person in your orbit is a similar opportunity to lift them high, to convey your confidence that they'll be good for the world. Doing that helps make it so.

Whose Auntie Lu are you?

—Deb