What are we responsible for?
 What are we as people living and working in communities together responsible to each other for? Our number one responsibility is to ourselves. Now at first glance this might seem selfish but it is like they tell you on airplane flights, in an emergency put your oxygen mask on first then take care of your children. If we can’t take care of ourselves then how can we help anyone else?
 Personal responsibility is our first responsibility. You need to make sure that you aren’t a burden to society before you can help anyone else. How do we do this? We make sure that we can provide for ourselves and our families. Providing adequate income and a roof over our heads sounds like a no brainer, doesn’t everyone?
 There are many people who don’t supply the basic needs for their families, they rely on family, churches or the government for their needs. In times of emergency this is fine, you lose a job, become sick and can’t work or you temporarily have no place to live, of course you seek help in anyway you can. But as soon as you are able you get back on your feet and take care of yourself. This is the way to build strong communities.
 We are very fortunate that we live in a time and place where we have the freedom to chose what we want to do and who we want to be. You can achieve as much as you want and dream as big as you like and you have a chance of becoming exactly what you want.
Don’t be a burden.
 Our first responsibility is to not be a burden on others. This requires us to find a way to support ourselves, pay our bills and take care of our immediate families. For some of us it’s easy for others it’s a real challenge. If you were brought up in a middle class household with the opportunity to go to college and receive a good education the chances are you will be able to support yourself just fine.Â
 If you didn’t have those advantages it could be a different story. Let’s say you were brought up in a family with a poverty mentality, where you were always told that you can’t succeed, the system is rigged against you so don’t even try. Maybe you were a drop out with little education and few job prospects. It doesn’t mean that you have to stay that way.
 You can always find a way.
 There are many avenues available for someone who wants to improve themselves. When I was in my twenties I wanted to be a special effects make up artist for the movies. Now, I had no experience and no connections in that industry. I was attending Emerson College in Boston at the time and took a class in theater make up. I found a shop that sold theatrical make up to schools and colleges in the area and bugged the owner until he hired me. The Owner was a sort of legend in the area, though he knew nothing of special effects make up, he taught me basic stage and TV make up. Using his connections with manufacturers, to find out where I could get supplies for special effects make up, I found every product and book available on the subject. I taught myself what I could and started calling the authors to make contacts.
Eventually I arranged to go to New York and set up appointments to visit these authors I had been studying. They hooked me up with professional make up artists who were thrilled to find someone who took an interest in their craft. From there I taught myself sculpting mold making and make up eventually becoming quite good at it. I knocked on doors until I convinced people to let me do the make up on their commercials and photo shoots, finally, I gained a reputation. From there I moved to LA and with the contacts I had made started to work on feature films. For over fifteen years I worked, professionally as a special effects make up artist
 That’s just an example of what I did, you can be creative and use your interests, skills and hobbies to find a way to earn some extra money or start a career. So if you aren’t where you want to be in life or choose to be in a new place you can do it,  just take responsibility and look for ways to improve your situation.
 Never take no for an answer, there is always a way for you to accomplish what you want to do, sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s incredibly hard but if you want to do or be anything it takes action, perseverance and patience. With these three things you can accomplish anything. You never need to be a burden on society you can always find a way to support yourself and take care of your family.
 It is really our obligation to take responsibility for ourselves so that not only are we not a burden to society but that we are in a position to help others.