Introducing ‘Firsts’: Stories that unite us in a divided world

In politics.

In preferences.

In our sense of right and wrong.

But are we really that different?

Most of us have the same wants and needs, the same aspirations and motivations.

We seek love. We work to give our dearest ones the best we can. We try to make our parents proud. We try to protect our children and instill within them a sense of joy and worth so that one day they will be able to live and thrive on their own.  We endure losses. And whether through the natural process of aging or the emergency of an unexpected health crisis, we consider our legacies as we face our own mortality; and what we will leave behind for those we love.

Over the next many months, in an occasional series called “Firsts,” Free Press photographer Mandi Wright and I will tell the stories of people facing these universal truths, these rites of passage.