One of my biggest passions has always been advocacy and politics. I have explored these interests at a surface level for years, and I have always known that engaging in these activities gives me joy, but why? 

 

Connecting with local politicians and activists was a crucial component to discovering my own personal motivations. At a local level, many elected positions are unpaid, so what drives people to get involved? The answer that many gave was linked in some way to joy: the joy of knowing that they helped improve their community, the joy of working across the aisle to help their constituents, the joy of knowing that they’ve made a difference. It was from these conversations that I began to realize why I love being involved in local politics so much. I’ve discovered that it’s about the results, it’s about knowing that the hours upon hours I spent door knocking and passing out political literature made a difference and got the candidate I support elected. I’ve never felt more joy than when I got to celebrate with my RSO and know that it was our hard work that got the results. 

 

There is a great connection between activism and politics in that one can inspire the other, and when you work in one of them, you can easily cross over into the other and create even more change. Moving forward, I am going to make sure that my RSO works together to support the causes that we care about more so that we can have a greater blend of activism and politics.