Posts

Thank You

       Last spring I was accepted into Uni. I spent the summer planning and arranging classes that I would like to take in the fall and spring. Honestly, when I heard of the Topics in Social Justice class, I was quite a bit intimidated by it. Going to Catholic school since Kindergarten, political conversations, whether they be about race, the environment, or human rights issues, were (and are) a very taboo topic. Even at my previous high school, being involved in a political conversation with a liberal perspective was always a battle that I was going to lose. As hard as it is to say, over time, I learned to just keep my mouth shut at school because speaking up was never going to do any good. My flame was put out just as soon as it started burning, so I did not sign up for Topics in Social Justice. What good would it be?      Well, in a turn of events, I ended up taking Topics in Social Justice, and I could not be more grateful for that happy little acc...

Working With DREAAM House

A few weeks ago I participated in the collaboration of our Social Justice class and DREAAM House. The event was to hold an outdoor scavenger hunt for the children at DREAAM House. There were about 20 or so children that were participating in the activity, ranging in age from about 4 to 11. Children that were younger and may not be able to read were given sheets with pictures of the objects that they were to find. The older kids were given sheets with the names of the objects that they were supposed to find, leaving a space for them to draw an image of it. The objects varied from a stick as long as your arm to an animal in the clouds. Regardless of age or ability, the kids were intrigued in the activity. Shortly into our walk to the Boneyard Creek, it started to drizzle, but the kids were unphased. They were excited to start looking and even starting before we got there. We separated into groups, each one consisting of a member from DREAAM and a member from our class. Despite the rain, ...

The 5th & Hill Campaign

    I was very grateful to hear Claudia Lennhoff and Dimitri Love of the 5th & Hill Campaign speak about to something that is very personal and close to them. To be honest, I had never heard of the 5th & Hill Campaign until they came to our class to speak with us. I think our education system should talk about issues that are not only relevant in time, but also in geographic closeness. Without doing so, how can you expect students to be active members of their community? Regardless, I was very grateful for the opportunity that I was given and hope to learn more about Environmental Racism, specifically in my community.      Something that I was most surprised of was the effect of toxic waste on people in the 5th & Hill community and how long lasting the effects were. It is easy to think that there would be one direct response for one cause, but there were a number of illnesses that each individual faced due to the toxic waste in the area. The worst of...

I See A World

     Hi all! Welcome to my blog, I See a World. First and foremost, I wanted to talk about how I came up with the idea for this blog name. Every year at my (private) grade school, starting in fourth grade, all of the students would have to participate in a poetry contest. To be honest, I hated it. I hate writing, I hate speaking, I hate expressing myself through words. Especially when those words need to include alliterations, onomatopoeias, and so on and so forth. Despite this, I was still a perfectionist and was going to try my hardest to get into the book of poems. And I did. Each year. But eighth grade was different. It was fall of 2017. The Las Vegas shooting occurred that week. While I felt that writing a poem about the weather or my dog would be easy, it would also be using my privilege to my benefit and avoiding what wasn't directly affecting me. So I didn't write a poem on the weather or my dog, but rather about every political issue that could possibly come to m...