Chris Sullivan

After three intense weeks training and living in Los Angeles with my cohort, we packed up the car and started driving California, Utah, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, a new city every week.

Thousands of students, long stretches of highway that somehow felt like healing.

Those six or seven weeks cut short by six weeks when the world suddenly shut down were filled with laughter, tears, gas station pep talks, late nights, and moments of pure awe.

It was the first time since my dad died that my world felt hopeful again.

Now I listen to your podcast on the way to work, usually crying after the fan segment.

I work at a local nonprofit called United Against Poverty that offers a hand up to families facing poverty.

We see over 600 families a day in our grocery program, and we help hundreds find stability and employment.

In many ways, it still feels like that same road trip, meeting people where they are and trying to make the world a little lighter for them, just like my dad would have.

This Is Us has touched my life and so many others in ways I cannot fully express, especially in one email.

Thank you for making the world a little lighter, both through the show and through the podcast.

Ariana.

Ariana, thank you for the work you do making the world lighter and brighter.

We need more people like you.

Look at this picture.

Oh, the thirst project.

Beautiful.

This is awesome.

I also want to shout out this thing.

It's small, but you made a point of emphasizing it in her email.

A hand up.