Personally, it’s been very difficult for me to be motivated to be an activist. Growing up Filipino Catholic, I had certain views pushed on me that are the complete opposite of how I feel today. Luckily, having my friends and other community members around me helped me stray away from the kind of opinions that have occupied my life for so long. I’ve been able to develop my own ideas about who I am as a person and what kind of values I have. However, expressing these ideas or values doesn’t really come all that easily to me at home simply because of my family. My family has different ideals than me and they’ve always just kind of told me to keep my head down and focus on myself. It’s this kind of thinking that has sort of forced me to push myself away from becoming an active citizen because I fear what my parents will think of me and how they’ll react to my current views that don’t align with theirs and what they’ve raised me to have.
Therefore, growing up and developing my own set of values but not acting on them has been something I’ve struggled with especially when I go to a school like William and Mary. Most of my activism has been centered around social media sites like Twitter where I feel like I can speak freely and really be able to share my opinions with people. However, participating in Branch Out, and specifically Moral Mondays today, has allowed me to experience a different kind of activism that I had never really felt comfortable with growing up and actually feel good about having done it. It was a different experience for me to be physically present there with my values and other values that I agree with and I think it has just changed that way I personally view activism. Because to me, activism doesn’t necessarily mean going out and protesting every day. It can be something simple like having a conversation with someone and trying to provide a new perspective and it is definitely not the same for everyone.
— Angela