Happy Birthday Kelsey
Gone but not forgotten, Kelsey would have been 26 today!
Kelsey McLean was a long time Sonlight camper who moved into a program leadership position when she was in high school. Full of life, creativity and joy, Kelsey is missed. Her impact on this world continues even after she passed away unexpectedly. A series of 37 Sonlight blog posts captured the wisdom that she shared and lived by.
Here is one of our favorite Kelsey Wisdoms:
“DO YOU”
Kelsey was an encourager of “doing you.” It was one of her most common pieces of advice. “Kelsey, what should I wear to dinner tonight?” “Do you,” she’d reply. “Kelsey, should I go running today or go to yoga? “Do you,” she’d say. “Kels, this winter, should I go to Turkey and travel or go galavant around South America?” “Just do you, girl.”
What she meant by this phrase—“Do you”—I think is this: Kelsey loved each and every individual for exactly who they were. She believed in a thing called unconditional love, where you don’t pass judgement, you simply love people for exactly who they are at every point in their life. And this is what she loved about her humans—her real, raw people who were not ashamed of their silly little quirks, of the funny ways they functioned, of the uniquely individual ways in which they brightened Kelsey’s world. Kelsey’s phrase “Do You” is merely a shortened expression of: “I love you exactly how you are, and that is how you should carry yourself in the world. You should do things exactly how you would like to because you make this world a more beautiful place and I wouldn’t want you in my life any other way.”
To read more Kelsey posts, choose the category “Kelsey Wisdoms” on the right side of the Blog page