Tomorrow is my 21st birthday.
Wow. 21. I still can’t really believe it. It feels like yesterday that I thought 21 was some big, old magical number I’d reach in the middle of college when I had life all figured out. Not so much.
It’s been the season of “21.” My friends & I are all finally reaching this magical age where we’re technically legal adults and everyone chooses to celebrate it pretty much the same way. In society’s standards, a typical 21st birthday extravaganza includes a night on the town, big list of things you’d never do in your right mind, and lots of alcohol. All of that just didn’t seem to cut it for me. There’s got to be more to living than pretending life’s one big party that I won’t even remember in the morning.
So, I did a little research and discovered that 800 million people in the world don’t have access to clean water. CLEAN WATER. Think about life without water…I mean, spaghetti quickly becomes an excluded dinner option, painting is out the window, and life as we know it–well, it’s dead to put it bluntly.
Water = Life.
That’s when I started thinking. Why should I spend lots of money on liquid that doesn’t give life when there are 800 BILLION PEOPLE who need WATER, who need LIFE.
I started crunching the numbers and found that $430 would give 21 people access to clean drinking water–that’s giving 4 families life…hope…a future.
I knew right then and there that my 21st birthday wouldn’t be your typical party night. So I gave it up.
I gave up my birthday to partner with charity: water in giving 21 people LIFE.
Join me. Give life. Give hope. Let’s make this the best 21st birthday celebration ever. Click here: http://mycharitywater.org/emilycummins