How?
This is the word, the question that has defined my first three weeks here in Seattle. How do we get from the U-district to Chinatown? How do I fit in time to do laundry? How do I see all the things I hope to see? Yet more frequently I find myself asking: how do I contribute at work? How do I jump into a movement and a context with which I have no experience? How do I make a difference? How do I start doing what we all want to do: changing the world?
I quickly learned to hop on an express each day to get to the International District. I end up not worrying about laundry until I absolutely must. I have come to terms with the fact that some of the things I hoped to do just won’t be possible. As for the rest, I have no answers yet…but I’m learning.
In the search for these answers, I could not be placed with a better organization. OneAmerica, a leading force in the struggle for immigrant, civil, and human rights, has warmly accepted me into their ranks and dragged me right into some amazing projects. In my first week, I met a lot of amazing, talented, and dedicated people. I helped our Organizing team do final preparations for a community gathering in Spokane, a call on the House and its Republican members to work on immigration reform. I began researching transit issues within King County Metro to understand how the rapidly approaching cuts will affect the communities we serve. I heard a personal account of the toll that non-permanent status takes on a person. Week two came along faster than I expected, busying me with more transit research, reflections on Obama’s press conference on Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR), some voter registration, and planning for an all-day Organizing team retreat. And now it’s week three: a week for presentation prep and delivery, conferences, and the Kent Cornucopia Days. It’s been a whirlwind, but three weeks have brought me a tiny bit closer to answering some of my big questions.
I try to contribute at work by ensuring that the work I do is my best and that it positively affects the ‘big-picture’ projects at our office. I jump into the immigration and social justice movements by doing just that, jumping in, questions and all. In a few weeks I’ve learned countless things about situations and contexts in Seattle, King County, Washington, and the U.S. as a whole.
I’m just not quite there in terms of actually making a difference and changing the world. But a man at the office told me something that really put my time here in perspective: “I saw people that died in a reality, a sad, painful reality, but I live in a dream of justice.” In the fight for social justice and immigrant, civil, and human rights, people will fail. Change takes time and making a difference does not have a clear-cut process. It takes people with a dream, a dream of a world where these things are part of every person’s life. A dream where there truly is justice for all.
So for now I’ll keep taking the express. I’ll do more organizing. I’ll continue registering people to vote. I’ll listen to people’s stories, and I’ll keep asking questions. I’ll keep learning. And I’ll keep dreaming.
Zelie Lewis
Duke Student '16
This is the word, the question that has defined my first three weeks here in Seattle. How do we get from the U-district to Chinatown? How do I fit in time to do laundry? How do I see all the things I hope to see? Yet more frequently I find myself asking: how do I contribute at work? How do I jump into a movement and a context with which I have no experience? How do I make a difference? How do I start doing what we all want to do: changing the world?
I quickly learned to hop on an express each day to get to the International District. I end up not worrying about laundry until I absolutely must. I have come to terms with the fact that some of the things I hoped to do just won’t be possible. As for the rest, I have no answers yet…but I’m learning.
In the search for these answers, I could not be placed with a better organization. OneAmerica, a leading force in the struggle for immigrant, civil, and human rights, has warmly accepted me into their ranks and dragged me right into some amazing projects. In my first week, I met a lot of amazing, talented, and dedicated people. I helped our Organizing team do final preparations for a community gathering in Spokane, a call on the House and its Republican members to work on immigration reform. I began researching transit issues within King County Metro to understand how the rapidly approaching cuts will affect the communities we serve. I heard a personal account of the toll that non-permanent status takes on a person. Week two came along faster than I expected, busying me with more transit research, reflections on Obama’s press conference on Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR), some voter registration, and planning for an all-day Organizing team retreat. And now it’s week three: a week for presentation prep and delivery, conferences, and the Kent Cornucopia Days. It’s been a whirlwind, but three weeks have brought me a tiny bit closer to answering some of my big questions.
I try to contribute at work by ensuring that the work I do is my best and that it positively affects the ‘big-picture’ projects at our office. I jump into the immigration and social justice movements by doing just that, jumping in, questions and all. In a few weeks I’ve learned countless things about situations and contexts in Seattle, King County, Washington, and the U.S. as a whole.
I’m just not quite there in terms of actually making a difference and changing the world. But a man at the office told me something that really put my time here in perspective: “I saw people that died in a reality, a sad, painful reality, but I live in a dream of justice.” In the fight for social justice and immigrant, civil, and human rights, people will fail. Change takes time and making a difference does not have a clear-cut process. It takes people with a dream, a dream of a world where these things are part of every person’s life. A dream where there truly is justice for all.
So for now I’ll keep taking the express. I’ll do more organizing. I’ll continue registering people to vote. I’ll listen to people’s stories, and I’ll keep asking questions. I’ll keep learning. And I’ll keep dreaming.
Zelie Lewis
Duke Student '16