30-Day Blogging Challenge, Day 12

Prompt: Besides communication or media devices (computers, televisions, phones, etc.) and advancements in transportation, what invention or inventions of the 20th century are you most grateful for, and why?

In today's world, there are so many things that make life easier, from technology to transportation. I for sure would be lost without my computer and the ability to travel so easily. However, in considering those inventions outside technology and transportation, there are so many contenders. When I first started thinking about inventions, I wasn't exactly sure what was invented when, so I did a quick Google search. Several things caught my eye: spiral bound notebooks (I couldn't survive without notebooks and pens!), cameras, crayons, teabags and vacuum cleaners. But, then I started thinking about my life and realized that for me, the best invention of the 20th century was the civil rights movement.

While we, as a nation, still have a ways to go towards true equality, we have come so far in terms of allowing all people to follow their dreams and live the lives they want. The civil rights movement opened the floodgates of opportunity and helped to unpin so many groups of people from the pigeon holes in which they had been placed. I am thankful for this change in U.S. society because it has allowed me to live an extraordinary life that fills me with happiness.

I am grateful for the civil rights movement and its outcome because it made it possible for me to attend any university, to choose whom to love, to decide if I want to marry or have kids, to pursue any field of studies, to have a career, to travel solo, to have a voice and vote, to be treated fairly and most of all, to be my own person. No one can dictate my future for me and I do not have to conform to social norms that would suck the life out of me. And, for that, I am truly a fortunate woman.