Welcome back to Bloganuary, the daily encouragement from WordPress for bloggers to post something each day. If you want to participate in Bloganuary, just click here! Today’s prompt asks: What is a cause you’re passionate about and why?

This is another one that’s difficult for me to answer these days. As I continue dealing with these recent months of depression, I’m having a hard time determining what I even care about, much less anything I’m actually passionate about.

Once upon a time, I think I could honestly say I was passionate about the welfare of children. While that isn’t necessarily a cause, it is something that would get me fired up. Particularly when I was working as a counselor in elementary schools and would regularly see kids show up with bruises and even, at one point, what could only possibly be cigarette burns. Child Protective Services would be called and nothing would be done. At the same time, it would anger me that parents who genuinely gave a damn about their kids would find themselves under the threat of having their children removed from the home because someone decided to make a false claim. Yet the kids who are actively being abused at home get ignored despite multiple reports from school administration.

I was about to say the system is broken. But, honestly, I don’t think it matters what system it is we’re talking about in America… they’re all broken. Maybe it’s my depression talking, but I really don’t have hope for our future. Every day, the idea of immigrating becomes more and more appealing.