It’s been a whirlwind, to say the least.
I’ve only been in New York since August 26th, and have already felt immense pressure and growth – with Columbia being a significant part of that journey. It’s as if, life back home in California had been stagnant, stale. That it took moving quite literally to Times Square, for these hands to start ticking again.
From the minute I landed at JFK, I’ve felt the pressures of Capitalism. The hustle. I’ve started thinking about basics and necessities in a way that I never had before. I was awarded the luxury of never worrying about a roof over my head or food in my mouth. For the first time in my life, I am standing utterly alone, responsible for my survival, my successes and my failures.
My mortality.
In a span of a mere three weeks, I’ve packed, said goodbye and moved across the country, started graduate school, looked at almost twenty apartments, finally signed a lease, updated my resume, applied for multiple part time jobs, started a babysitting gig, preparing to tutor high school students in a second job, started a website and blog, met with advisors for my MSW academic plan and began compiling plans for a startup venture. It’s the most productive I’ve been in my entire life and I attribute it to this city and the energy of the people living here.
Growth requires discomfort.
Discomfort in standing on your own, discomfort in being brutally honest with where that position in life is, discomfort in acknowledging when and where you’ve benefited from society and when and where you can be a benefit to society. It means coming to terms with the multiple facets of your identity, whether you are part of the dominant or minority group in every aspect and how to raise people up and promote tolerance, diversity and understanding.
CSSW has created an environment that fosters discussion that is difficult, self-reflective and pushes empathetic understanding. PROP and consequent readings have been able to put into words concepts and philosophies I’ve always had suspicions about, but couldn’t find solid ground for them grow.
Social (justice) work is the profession to give a voice for the silenced. To empower those left behind, so that they may climb out of the graves society has cast(e) on them.
Everyone has internal biases, recognize and maneuver them.
Teachers aren’t perfect, they’re human and have their own biases and preconceptions – question them. Forgive them. Forgive others.
As long as you benefit from society and allow things to continue in a way that has pushed you to the top, you have contributed to racism and oppression.
Language is oppressive.
Anti-Black racism is engrained in the very nature of our country and its institutions, to understand the underserved we must understand how far reaching the roots of slavery, oppression and racism go. How much fearing differences can affect a group of people for decades.
I am a woman of color, growing up in a lower middle class, single parent Buddhist household and face discrimination and challenges on that front as a minority. On the other hand, I am also considered part of the “model minority”, heteronormative, and able-bodied – both are part of my identities and collectively provide me with benefits and inequalities in life.
No one in this world is perfect, free from biases, stereotypes, mistakes. But I would argue that no one in this world is imperfect either. Everyone is just different and each person is the one and only soul that exists on this earth. We can’t control how people will act or react, but what we can do as fellow coexisting humans, is to try and understand where people come from, why they think the way they do. For us ourselves to be forgiving when we’re treated poorly, to let things go when they’re negative and to give more love to this world.
At the end of the day no matter what industry, what role people play, what their positionality is, somewhere at their core, every single person strives for human connection. Fulfillment isn’t about our own possessions, woes, stories, egos. It’s about the people and the relationships we form and spreading goodwill in a way that inspires others to realize what life has and will always be about.
Each other.