I’ve always known I was privileged—raised in a loving home, with every opportunity a kid could ask for. Great schools, music lessons, sports teams, a safe neighborhood… all of it. Growing up in what we not-so-lovingly called “the bubble,” I was surrounded by people who looked and lived a lot like me.

But that bubble burst in a fairly dramatic fashion the first time I volunteered to tutor elementary school students just a few miles away—in a school system that was literally on the other side of the tracks. These students, many of whom couldn’t read well into primary school, opened my eyes to a reality I’d never had to face so closely. My mother had taught me how to read almost before I could speak. She read to me every night - it was a part of my childhood I can’t imagine not having. 

As I looked at the days if not weeks of dirt beneath the fingernails of the children’s hands as they pointed at words they didn’t know, scratching at scabs that hadn’t been cared for on arms that were skinny and small, everything came into sharp focus for me. I suddenly felt guilty in a way I couldn’t put into words. Guilty for having a mom who read to me before I could even speak, guilty for having all I did, and guilty for not knowing how to fix this - not knowing how I could help care for these kids. It was the first time I saw the depth of the structural inequities that exist right alongside comfort and privilege—and it changed me.

No, I didn’t become a saint overnight. I was in high school. I still bought layered tanks and frappuccinos and spent more time thinking about "the right jeans" than was reasonable - choices I would take back if I could. But the experience shifted something fundamental in me, something that continued to shape the choices I made—through college and beyond into my life now. Around my college course loads, I continued to tutor students, this time in Southeast Ohio where the chasm between privilege and poverty was even more evident. When I moved on from school into other cities, traveling, exploring, I continued to see the have and have not of the world around me. It affects me deeply to this day. It makes me grateful every day I wake up into the life I have, and it means - to me, anyway - that I am responsible for working hard to be able to share some good how and where I can.

This episode, I’m sitting down with someone who is walking through these questions of privilege, purpose, and impact, and finding real ways to bring good to his ever-expanding community. Kent Wellington is Partner and Cincinnati Market Leader at the Bricker Graydon law firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied economics and English at Kenyon College, then headed to law school at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He has received recognition from the American Bar Association, the Cincinnati Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Foundation, The Ohio State University College of Law and The Cincinnatus Society, the President’s Volunteer Service Award, and so many more awards, it might take too long to list them. Listen to learn more and get involved with the good you can do.

The Karen Wellington Foundation Saturday Morning Hoops Bridge Series