On Community

I love DC. I love the city, the energy of this place, everything! Most of all, though I love the people that I've met here. I love going into a room, and never, not even for one second feeling like an outsider. I love learning from my friends and mentors alike that it's okay to put yourself first. I love not being alone. I love learning, in some ways for the first time, that there is no experience in my life that is not shared. I love being reminded that it is not about me. It has never been about me. I am part of a rich history. I am part of a movement. I carry with me the stories of the past, and the hope of the future.

 For one of the first times in my life, I am not in the minority when I talk about an experience. I love the fact that I can go into a room and tell a story, and five people will jump in right away and tell me they are right there with me. It reminds me that I am part of the community that makes up 1/5 of this nation. In some ways, that is still so strange to me. To think of myself as part of a community, a movement, a shared, diverse, complex, difficult, and beautiful history. It's weird because for the most part as disabled people we start out alone. I've always had allies, yes there's no doubt in that, but disability community, that's still pretty new to me.

 I love learning to be my authentic self. Learning to not be afraid I'm going to freak somebody out, or make myself seem strange with what I need. I love that there are so many people here with whom I have so many shared experiences; it can almost be scary at times. I love that even people whose experiences are vastly different than mine are at the core of my community. I love that I'm learning to think not only about my needs or the needs of chair users, but the needs of the whole community in all its awesome variety. To use a line from early in the summer, I officially crossed the threshold, and I have to say I'm never going back.

 Sure, a few months from now I will move on from this place, but I'll never forget what it means to be fully part of the community. It means you fight not only for yourself, but for others. It means you stand, or in my case, sit in solidarity. In means you learn to stop thinking that you're the only one who's ever gone through whatever it is you're going through. It means you learn to talk about it, not just for yourself, but for everyone who will come after you, and for everyone who came before.

I love this place, I love these people. I love that they can see me for who I am, the good, the bad, and the awkward. I love knowing that I come from a legacy of people who never stopped fighting for what they believed in. I love knowing that this history matters. I love knowing with my full heart that I am not now, nor have I ever been alone. I love knowing that my place is in this movement, and that I come from the legacy of people who were not satisfied with being somebody else's charity, but rather ready to change the world.