 Rob Music, the chaplain of University of Pikeville, invited a local guest speaker to a weekly event that he hosts in the Christmas Auditorium. I had the chance to speak with Rob and his guest Emma Lowe, who was born and raised in Eastern Kentucky, as she shared her personal story of transitioning from a man to a woman. You can run from your problems. You can drop. You can run from your problems for 30 years. Today is just one of our annual or, I guess, weekly convocation experiences. We have a 45 or 50 minute talk usually by a person in the community or around the world. And what we're really looking at this year is kind of how engaging our world with empathy to make a difference. I've known Emma for a while. Emma actually used to work here at the University in an upward bound program. And Emma last year came and spoke to our medical school about transitioning and medical needs of persons who are transitioning. And our students really gravitated towards her. We have to be honest about some stereotypes about living in Central Appalachia. And I think one of the grossest stereotypes is somehow we're a closed, narrowed group of people. That's not the case at all. I think we're very open, very embracing community. So I think talks like this, to me, aren't abnormal. It's just who we are. I was born and raised here in Pike County, Kentucky. I have a bit of an unusual story as far as what the typical media portrayal of transgender individuals in this country are. So I was a late in life transition. My experiences have been that Eastern Kentucky has not always been the most progressive place. But I've seen a lot of change in that over the most recent years. And I feel like the ideas of diversity help to build a stronger community for us here. But essentially we're just better together than we are separated. I've never felt better about myself and my life since I opened up to myself. Since I admitted to myself who I am and the kind of life I actually want to live. So anyone who can have an opportunity to have that, I say go for it. It beats the heck out of being depressed. It is in the best interest of the community that everyone is in the best state of mind. It's in the best interest for themselves. We do better work. We are able to be of better service to each other when we are accepting of ourselves and accepting of each other. It costs absolutely nothing to be kind.