It seems that each year on International Women’s Day, journalists everywhere choose famous women—politicians, writers, activists and movie stars as the most inspiring and influential women among us. I respectfully disagree. I think that the most inspiring and influential women among us include our mothers, our grandmothers, our sisters, our friends and neighbors. For it is these women who do the seemingly ordinary tasks of weaving together the threads of our lives who really do make the world go round. Their unwavering ability to work quietly and in the background, loving their own children as well as the children of others, while guiding all of us along the roads to our own happiness, have much more of an impact on the world than a movie star or politician everyone ever will.
In third would war zones where I’ve served as a humanitarian aid worker, I’ve watched in awe as the lives of women have been decimated. Everything familiar is gone. They lived in crowded camps where everything—where they live, how they live, what they eat—is all decided for them.
Yet despite the horrors they have witnessed, they still manage a smile, a wave, a sweet nod to another woman. They are a testament to the incredible resilience of women. They represent the best of humanity in the worst of times.
Around the world whether in sturdy houses or flimsy huts, it is the women who, despite their own burden of responsibilities, will tend to our dreams while putting their own aside.
Is there anything better than a hug from your mother or loving friend, someone you know will always be there whether standing in front of you or nestled deep in your heart? So, on this International Women’s Day. Actually, let’s celebrate one another. And remember, the ordinary women among us—the harried woman that you see in the supermarket or rushing to her car or guiding her children across a busy street, live extraordinary if quiet lives but it is they who make the world a better place. Without them, where would any of us be?

Let’s celebrate International Women’s Day by cheering one another on!