I’ve never considered myself an activist. An academic, yes; educated, and passionate about many social causes, but never an activist.
My friends are activists. My mother is an activist. Each and every one of them, who go out and organize and fight for their beliefs, are people I look up to with such awe in my heart. I wish I could do that, I would think. I just didn’t know where to start.
It’s easy to find yourself alone, lost, and confused as to how to get started, or how to do anything at all. It feels like drowning, alone in the middle of the ocean, and unless you know where to look, there’s no support.
Maybe you’re afraid of confrontation, of putting yourself and your true beliefs out into the world. Maybe it’s easier to just not say anything, and instead hunker down and focus on research that only your own eyes will see. Maybe you don’t even know if you know anything about the issue at all.
It is so easy to get overwhelmed, and it is so easy to not do anything at all. It’s simple inertia; just as an object in motion, a person taking charge and being active in their community, will tend to stay in motion, an object that is not moving, a person not doing anything, out of fear or laziness or lack of knowledge, will tend to not do anything, and it takes a force to change that state of being.
You can be the change in your own state of being.
You don’t have to do everything on your own.
Maybe you find a few other people that want to do something with you, promote change or raise awareness about anything at all. Maybe you take charge of delegating tasks to people, or organizing your information. Maybe you are promoting what you’re doing, or designing things. Maybe you’re the speaker, but not the one who does the research. Maybe you’re the researcher who doesn’t speak publicly. Maybe you just float and see what needs to be done, while not taking on everything.
When you fill one role, others will help and fill the rest. Action is communal. To be an activist is to be part of a community—a community that will help you learn to be an activist. It is a circular thing, and you each will help each other through taking action to be the best selves you can be.
Two months from now, if you take that first step today and just reach out, asking what change you want to see in the world, and what you can do in tandem with others to achieve it, you will find yourself in a place you’d never dreamed of before.
All it takes is community.