Reader question #16: My role models

Hi Lisanne, do you have role models – someone you look up to? And who is it?

I admire people who devote their lives to helping other people, especially if that work is done with very little visibility. I also admire a writer like James Baldwin who always spoke truth to power through his essays about the lived experience of black people in the United States. The story of Kalief Browder is another example of the kind of courage it takes to stand up for what’s right. It inspires me. I also love how Louis Theroux, the documentary maker from the BBC, seems to succeed in humanizing people who live completely different lives. Once we get to know the people we call “odd”, oftentimes we are reminded of having more things in common than we might think sometimes. One day I hope to be able to ask questions with such class and dignity as Barbara Walters was able to do for so many years. It’d be pretty great if I could meet these people one day and have a good conversation with them, or take a time travel machine and go back in time since some of them are not here anymore. I guess my point is that there are several people I admire, men and women, for different reasons. They all represent something I aspire to be.