My D.C. experience has created a great avenue of personal growth for me. 2020 has been the year of challenges: overt injustice, a heavily concerning election and a pandemic are things I never thought I would have to navigate, but it is teaching me a lot. I am learning self-love, self-care and the importance of being present. This is a challenging and unprecedented semester, but I will walk out more powerful than how I arrived for sure.
A huge part of this experience is my internship. I am interning with Little Friends for Peace (LFFP) this semester. They are a non-profit organization driven to create peaceful reflections and experiences in their community. They teach restorative justice processes to incarcerated individuals, children and adults not just in DC, but also internationally. LFFP has programs around the world with committees in China, Rome, Cameroon, and El Salvador. They very much just want to make a difference in whatever capacity possible. LFFP is working with an outdoor learning center called Alexandria Soccer Association. We set up tents outdoors where we can help provide children with a more interactive learning experience in comparison to just Zooming. It is a really cool experience; although I think that all the kids agree they miss how school used to be.
When it comes to social issues here in D.C., it has been challenging. On September 2, just three days after I moved here, 18-year-old Deon Kay was shot and killed by police in Southeast D.C. This impacted me in a lot of ways. I am not only in a new space, but I am an African American woman. I felt stunned, shocked and scared to think that I am so close to something so normal for the communities here. It didn’t help that I was separated from my closest support systems. I am someone who takes any issue related to my people seriously. I didn’t know whether to go protest and risk coming in contact with COVID—or worse, the police—or if I should silently bite my tongue until it’s obvious what to do next. I am still struggling with this. It doesn’t help being in an environment so heavily policed. There isn’t a day I don’t hear their sirens or see the police just sitting on the street for no other reason than to just be there. It is terrifying; I am not going to lie, but I am allowing myself grace to get through this.
LFFP does a good job of creating spaces for me to share my feelings, but I just feel called to do more. I feel I should be in the streets screaming from the rooftops about change, but to do so would put myself and my housemates in more danger of contracting COVID. Overall, this experience is nothing like what I signed up for, but it is forcing me to get out of my comfort zone. I am learning to go with the flow, listen to my heart and take a breath. I think this will be an interesting semester for every student this year. Some of us will have a great story to tell our kids one day: About our drive, our commitment and love to make our country a better place.