Last month, I was invited to co-host the White House Youth Policy Summit alongside @sixtocancel, where 80 young community leaders from across the nation attended and spoke directly to policymakers about how federal programs and policies can be improved to better serve the lives and communities of young people.
I left D.C. feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the young advocates I met (several of whom are tagged in this post) whose advocacy for adolescent and human rights is compounded with exhaustion and fatigue from pushing against systems that are characteristically stubborn.
I feel strongly that our most pervasive enemy this election cycle will be the current of apathy that’s surged among us in the face of an increasingly discouraging political landscape. I get it. It’s bleak. However, my time at the WH Youth Policy Summit reminded me that indifference is costly. If you don’t pay the price directly, someone in your community will. My personal belief is that we owe it to ourselves, to the thousands of young advocates across the nation championing children and adolescent interests, and to our brothers and sisters with less access – domestic and international – whose lives quite literally depend on it, to VOTE thoughtfully this November with *progress* in mind where perfection fails.
Being among dozens of fellow brown, black, AAPI, and Native young people in historic buildings and institutions where we wouldn’t have been welcomed with such warmth and attentiveness just a handful of decades prior, I couldn’t help but feel both immensely proud and deeply wounded. It’s precisely this friction between marveling over how far we’ve come and resentment for where we’ve been that stokes my internal fire for progressive change. I want to ensure a more peaceful world for those I know and love, those I don’t yet, and those who will succeed us all – Just as my predecessors did for me. I implore you to lean into your fire. Equity, peace, and freedom from subjugation require perpetual maintenance, but they’re evergreen principles that will always be worth fighting for.
Last month, I was invited to co-host the White House Youth Policy Summit alongside @sixtocancel, where 80 young community leaders from across the nation attended and spoke directly to policymakers about how federal programs and policies can be improved to better serve the lives and communities of young people.
I left D.C. feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the young advocates I met (several of whom are tagged in this post) whose advocacy for adolescent and human rights is compounded with exhaustion and fatigue from pushing against systems that are characteristically stubborn.
I feel strongly that our most pervasive enemy this election cycle will be the current of apathy that’s surged among us in the face of an increasingly discouraging political landscape. I get it. It’s bleak. However, my time at the WH Youth Policy Summit reminded me that indifference is costly. If you don’t pay the price directly, someone in your community will. My personal belief is that we owe it to ourselves, to the thousands of young advocates across the nation championing children and adolescent interests, and to our brothers and sisters with less access – domestic and international – whose lives quite literally depend on it, to VOTE thoughtfully this November with *progress* in mind where perfection fails.
Being among dozens of fellow brown, black, AAPI, and Native young people in historic buildings and institutions where we wouldn’t have been welcomed with such warmth and attentiveness just a handful of decades prior, I couldn’t help but feel both immensely proud and deeply wounded. It’s precisely this friction between marveling over how far we’ve come and resentment for where we’ve been that stokes my internal fire for progressive change. I want to ensure a more peaceful world for those I know and love, those I don’t yet, and those who will succeed us all – Just as my predecessors did for me. I implore you to lean into your fire. Equity, peace, and freedom from subjugation require perpetual maintenance, but they’re evergreen principles that will always be worth fighting for.
Last month, I was invited to co-host the White House Youth Policy Summit alongside @sixtocancel, where 80 young community leaders from across the nation attended and spoke directly to policymakers about how federal programs and policies can be improved to better serve the lives and communities of young people.
I left D.C. feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the young advocates I met (several of whom are tagged in this post) whose advocacy for adolescent and human rights is compounded with exhaustion and fatigue from pushing against systems that are characteristically stubborn.
I feel strongly that our most pervasive enemy this election cycle will be the current of apathy that’s surged among us in the face of an increasingly discouraging political landscape. I get it. It’s bleak. However, my time at the WH Youth Policy Summit reminded me that indifference is costly. If you don’t pay the price directly, someone in your community will. My personal belief is that we owe it to ourselves, to the thousands of young advocates across the nation championing children and adolescent interests, and to our brothers and sisters with less access – domestic and international – whose lives quite literally depend on it, to VOTE thoughtfully this November with *progress* in mind where perfection fails.
Being among dozens of fellow brown, black, AAPI, and Native young people in historic buildings and institutions where we wouldn’t have been welcomed with such warmth and attentiveness just a handful of decades prior, I couldn’t help but feel both immensely proud and deeply wounded. It’s precisely this friction between marveling over how far we’ve come and resentment for where we’ve been that stokes my internal fire for progressive change. I want to ensure a more peaceful world for those I know and love, those I don’t yet, and those who will succeed us all – Just as my predecessors did for me. I implore you to lean into your fire. Equity, peace, and freedom from subjugation require perpetual maintenance, but they’re evergreen principles that will always be worth fighting for.
Last month, I was invited to co-host the White House Youth Policy Summit alongside @sixtocancel, where 80 young community leaders from across the nation attended and spoke directly to policymakers about how federal programs and policies can be improved to better serve the lives and communities of young people.
I left D.C. feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the young advocates I met (several of whom are tagged in this post) whose advocacy for adolescent and human rights is compounded with exhaustion and fatigue from pushing against systems that are characteristically stubborn.
I feel strongly that our most pervasive enemy this election cycle will be the current of apathy that’s surged among us in the face of an increasingly discouraging political landscape. I get it. It’s bleak. However, my time at the WH Youth Policy Summit reminded me that indifference is costly. If you don’t pay the price directly, someone in your community will. My personal belief is that we owe it to ourselves, to the thousands of young advocates across the nation championing children and adolescent interests, and to our brothers and sisters with less access – domestic and international – whose lives quite literally depend on it, to VOTE thoughtfully this November with *progress* in mind where perfection fails.
Being among dozens of fellow brown, black, AAPI, and Native young people in historic buildings and institutions where we wouldn’t have been welcomed with such warmth and attentiveness just a handful of decades prior, I couldn’t help but feel both immensely proud and deeply wounded. It’s precisely this friction between marveling over how far we’ve come and resentment for where we’ve been that stokes my internal fire for progressive change. I want to ensure a more peaceful world for those I know and love, those I don’t yet, and those who will succeed us all – Just as my predecessors did for me. I implore you to lean into your fire. Equity, peace, and freedom from subjugation require perpetual maintenance, but they’re evergreen principles that will always be worth fighting for.
