Thinking about my roots

Flickr image from Martin LaBar

A recent post from Colleen over at “Know Your Own Bone” got me thinking about how I got started in all this. “This” being activism, social justice and nonprofit work.

I may not mention it much, but I’m a feminist. It’s one of my core beliefs and provides a sustaining ethical framework for the way I live my life. Just in case you didn’t know, the dictionary definition of the word (which I can still recite from memory after having it drilled into my head during my first job) is “the policy, practice or advocacy of social, political and economic equality between women and men.” Seems pretty basic right? Then why didn’t I know about it in high school or at the beginning of my college career?

About halfway through college, I was asked by a friend and mentor if I would be interested in working in the college’s Womyn’s Resource Center. I thought about for a little while; it paid better than regular work study and it was more interesting than taking TVs and VCRs to various classrooms which I did for my Media Center job, so I decided to interview for the job. That was perhaps one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.

During my interview I was asked about my definition of feminism and I was completely speechless contemplating an answer (if you know me, you know its no small feat to render me speechless). After a while I stammered out an answer and decided right away that I needed to figure out the definition ASAP. I eventually organized a conference on feminisms – yes, there are many, many definitions of the word – and organized many other events to educate and activate the college community about women’s issues.

So what does this have to do with my present career? Well, I knew I wanted to come to DC all through college, I was a political science major and loved everything about politics. Originally I thought I’d start out working for my congressman (good old Sherwood Boehlert, who was an alumnus of my college and frequently spoke to us about politics) and then make my way from there. But when I came upon feminism, women’s issues and the injustices perpetrated the world over against a group of people that made up 50%+ of the human population, I decided I needed to do something about it.

When I came to DC to intern, I worked at a women’s organization. Through some focused networking I got myself a job in a women’s rights organization. And I moved down here to change the world.

I was a little bit…um…idealistic.

The end of this story is that I spent a few years working my ass off for a couple of different organizations and eventually burnt out. In fact I don’t ever think I can go back to working on women’s issues. This is the tragedy of so much of nonprofit and social justice work – when organizations decide to exploit young people and take them for all they’re worth physically, mentally and spiritually.

On the other hand, the positive outcome of this is that it got me started down the path to nonprofit social justice work. It also helped me focus on what I really wanted in my career: a chance to apply my skills in organizing, outreach, advocacy, member relations, etc. to a variety of organizations working on a variety of issues.

It just goes to show that simple roots can grow into a complex, interesting and completely unexpected organism.

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