Progress

So today I awoke to the loud beeping of my alarm at 6:45 am and proceeded to snooze for an extra 20 minutes. Not exactly the best way to start my day, especially since today I was heading to the Campus Progress National Convention. I wasn’t too sure what I signed up for other than a free convention at a nice hotel with some pretty famous people speaking at it. I never took much notice into politics, until this past election, so I figured I wouldn’t be able to take that much away from the event. However, what I experienced the next few hours, really surprised me and I was pretty, yup I’ll say it… inspired.

We got to the convention and got some great breakfast and the program started right at 9am. The director of Campus Progress and other important people that work for the organization greeted us and the first Spoken Word artist took the stage. It was none other than Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, one of AngryAsianMan’s top 30 under 30 most influential Asian Americans this year. She did some great pieces, and one that specifically addressed the small amount of us Asian folk in the room. Since coming to DC, it’s been the first time since I’ve felt like an ethnic minority and definitely out of my comfort zone. It makes me appreciate having safe discussion spaces, such as REACH and Sierra for the past 3 years. So for her piece to specifically address us and recognize our presence in the room, it was dope. Much Love!

Shortly after Kelly Tsai took the stage, another Campus Progress person took the stage: Erica Williams. She spoke very eloquently, and the quote she kept referring back to by Michaelangelo throughout her speech is one that I’ll never forget:

“The greatest danger for most people is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low, and we achieve it.”

Too often do we all do that; I’m guilty of that myself. I remember in Ed 173, when Prof. Hall said that by aiming low and achieving those goals, we build self esteem. It is something that can hurt us in the future because if we fail at trying things outside of our usual standards, we can quickly become discouraged. If we aim high and take our mistakes or shortcomings as indicators that we are getting closer to our goal, then self efficacy is developed and optimism becomes more natural of a response.

I think what impressed me the most were the other organizers and the students that came out to the conference. All of them were from different parts of the country, and some were not even from the US, but they all came out to the conference just to learn and soak up the experience. Each of the seminars during the day were addressed at many different issues affecting college students today, such as journalism, media, Gay rights, religion, college affordability, climate change, etc. All these different issues appealed to the huge group of students who came out to the conference. All of them felt passionate about one or more of these issues and in their hometowns and school communities, they were pushing for change. Hearing the stories of what some of the recognized scholars accomplished was really crazy. Seeing young people be critical and assertive in pushing for changes and accomplishing them made me wonder, ‘Damn, I really want to be like them.’

Peer role models are something amazing and seeing their passion for a cause makes it that much easier for you to follow suit and advocate what matters to you. If they can do it, why can’t I? A lot of time, I get discouraged and avoid advocacy, especially if my opinion is one that definitely challenges the common opinion. There have been times here in DC, when I bit my tongue and swallowed my pride. I should not be afraid to speak my mind and say what I believe, but a lot of times, it is so much easier to just suppress those contradictory inputs. After going to this conference and being in the presence of such amazing youth advocates, I was reminded again why there’s no reason for me not to say anything. If I should want change, being silent is almost as bad as being apathetic. I’m working on changing that. In the words of Van Jones, the Special Advisor for Green Jobs:

“GET IT DONE!”