Success doesn’t begin until you begin the walk down the way towards your goals.

And your walk   down the way always begins first with a baby step. Why do we call them baby steps? Are they really anything more than our next step down life’s way?

Baby steps are the first steps we take as an act of faith. We see others stepping out and we want to show our ability to walk by following them. As we grow, we continue our development by taking extra baby steps. Sometimes we fall; sometimes we fail. After that, all steps become an act of faith; we just become more practiced. If you say to yourself “I don’t want to make a fool of myself” or “I’d better be good at this”, you’ll probably never take the baby steps towards your goals and end up lying in your own self-pity.

As a culture, we focus on results. We think about every risk that must be taken to reach our goals. There are few people who are excellent performers of any tasks the first time they try them. They fail and succeed. Then, they build upon their abilities learned each time. They practice their skills and use their talents through baby steps before they are ready to prove them to the whole world.

So, learn to take those baby steps to reach the goals before you. Know that you can depend on God to show you the way. As you become more experienced, your baby steps become a walk, then a jump, and finally a sprint. That’s how our baby steps lead us through the marathon of life.

Is art boring? It’s not, really. I don’t think so, at least. But there’s a problem with how we look at art, how we approach it.

Museums are formal and strangely dry. There’s no embrace. Barriers prevent us from leaving the path set by the curator (馆长). Glass traps the paintings permanently in their frames – an invisible barrier that prevents us from ever getting close to the art, from touching it, feeling it. Guides and guards are constantly observing us, stopping us from taking photos, or using selfie sticks, or talking too loud. Museums have too many rules. And they’ve made our art boring.

We should be able to see art, to sometimes touch it. How can we feel any connection to the world? Art is a way to connect to the world, and yet so much of our art (and it is our art, not theirs, not yours — but ours) is unreachable.

Why can’t we laugh in museums? Why can’t we take silly selfies in front of art, our tongues sticking out, our hands in the air? Art is not boring and yet, we as a society, have made it so. We’ve trapped incredible artists behind glass boxes, with random rules governing noise levels, lights, flashes, sounds, photos, selfies, pens & pencils.

I love art. I think it has this incredible power to change our world. It can move us — as individuals, or as a collective society. Art is so often a window to something else. And yet we’ve allowed museums and galleries and collectors to prevent us from ever opening those windows.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy art museums. There are many fantastic ones around the world. And without so many wonderful curators and collectors, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy much of the art that is created -the masterpieces and the newer, more contemporary (and sometimes crazy) art. But at the same time, we’ ve allowed museums too much control.

They’ve taken our art. They’ve controlled our world. And our world, our art — it’s not meant to be controlled. It’s meant to be experienced — however that may be. It’s an individual, personal choice. Let’s take back our art, our museums. And take some selfies.

During the school year, Kacer works about 10 hours a week, juggling his job with school and cheerleading practice. But he hopes to pick up more shifts (轮班) this summer to earn extra spending money and to help his family save for his college tuition.

Across the country, lawmakers are supprting new legislation (立法) that would allow teens like Kacer to do just that — by loosening some child labor protections at the state level. Ohio and other states, for example, have proposed bills that would permit teens — with their parents’ permission — to work later at night, even on school days. In some states, such as Iowa and Minnesota, legislation would allow teens to take jobs in a wider range of industries, including construction.

As businesses started reopening after the global crisis, many adults left low-wage jobs for better-paying ones. “Adult workers no longer want this crazy low-wage service job that has a ludicrous (荒唐的) schedule, few benefits, and rude customers,” Alicia Sasser Modestino, a labor expert who studies the youth workforce, told reporters, “so employers suddenly turned to youth.”

Some experts say there are benefits to increasing work opportunities for young people. For starters, many teens must work in order to help their families make ends meet. A recent study also found that students with part-time jobs are more likely to earn higher wages in the future compared with classmates who don’t work. Plus, experts add, working teens are likely to spend more, which helps the economy. In addition, having a job instills responsibility in teens and could even lead to an eventual career.

But critics of changing the laws worry that doing so could put kids in danger. They say teens working later at night raises safety concerns, such as how they will get home. And, they add, some jobs that lawmakers want to open to teens could put young people at risk of injury or death. Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, is against his state’s bill that would allow some teens to work in manufacturing (制造业) and meatpacking facilities. “Child labor should be limited and safe,” he told reporters. “Let kids be kids. There are plenty of job opportunities right now for kids to gain experience and learn responsibility without putting them in danger.” In addition, some parents and educators worry that if teens devote more time to work, their education will suffer. Research shows that working more than 20 hours a week during the school year can tire young people out and leave less time for studying.

While states continue to debate changing their child labor laws, there is one thing that many people agree on: The country’s labor shortage, they say, could be largely solved if more employers offered better pay and benefits to adults.