10/24/2026
Meliorism.
The belief that the world is not perfect, but through intentional human effort and action, we can make it better.
I don’t think I knew there was a word for something I’ve spent much of my adult life trying to live by.
For years, was about what I could give of myself as an artist. Somewhere along the way, that shifted into something I found even more meaningful. Teaching, mentoring, creating, and building spaces where people could feel fully seen and celebrated for exactly who they were.
I spent much of my career questioning why things had to be done simply because they’d always been done that way. Why belonging in something so beautiful had to come with so many conditions.
And then came … Goodness, did that deepen everything.
Raising two little humans, one of whom experiences the world differently than much of the world expects her to, has only strengthened my belief that perhaps we should spend less time asking people to fit into the world and more time making the world a place where they can belong.
I think motherhood has made me a more thoughtful teacher. And I think the years I spent advocating for … celebrating individuality, and challenging what was considered traditional prepared me, in ways I couldn’t have imagined, for the mother I would become.
I don’t have it all figured out. Not even close.
But I do believe we have a responsibility to leave the spaces we occupy a little kinder, more inclusive, and more compassionate than we found them.
For our children. For our students. For those who come after us.
Not because perfection is possible.
But because better always is.
