Mount Trump

Advocating for societal change can be very tiring, to be realistic. It is indeed a very fulfilling act -- to fight for something that is bigger than yourself, and to translate your anger into action and change. There are so many things happening in the world today that are sometimes unbelievably disheartening. If you pile one problem on top of another, we would have a mountain taller than Everest, towering over the little people who have suffered for centuries.

The way our society functions has honestly never changed. We have made little steps towards improvement, but in reality it is more of a distraction rather than improvement -- a distraction from what is really going on. It allows for hegemonic ideologies to sneakily run our lives and pull us under oppression, yet we still come to wonder why we continue to suffer after all these years.

Let me be more specific. Historically speaking, underprivileged communities have always remained in the same categories: non-white, non-male, and poor/working class. It is not limited to these three categories, however, these three can also play into different intersections and subcategories that ultimately, make these people even more diverse, and unique. Our world hates those words: diverse and unique. Holders of power -- the white, rich, and male individuals -- have implemented a system that have allowed them to stay above all others, despite the progress minority groups have been fighting for for too long. Way too long.

And here we are today. With a celebrity, cheeto-head president who has made it his very goal to control this country even more cruelly, and inconsiderate, of the growing population of fighters and dreamers who come from different backgrounds yet still sacrifice to make contributions to this country. The clown we have reigned supreme, has only been in office for a few months, but managed to implement executive orders, laws and policies that directly attack people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and so forth!

That's why I say, there is a mountain of problems. We are trying to crawl to the top, to break this mountain in half, but the big white man still keeps building the mountain higher.

It is a tiring climb.

introduction

for a very long time, I've put off practicing and exercising my habit of writing. it's mainly because of life, and all the many responsibilities that have kept me from thinking about myself for once. I had lunch today with the executive director of the nonprofit I am currently working at, for my fellowship. he told me that I should keep writing. don't think about what you want to do with your degree, don't pick and choose what type of career I want to make out of my education... the more important thing to focus on is my present. right now, I need to think about the stuff that matters to me and what I need to do to get to wherever it is I'm trying to go. it all started with writing. since I've already started, I might as well continue. when I was 7 years old, I had a journal. it was a small notebook with a Barbie cover. I was sitting in my parent's bedroom, in our little house in the Philippines. I don't remember exactly what I wrote, but it was something like... tomorrow, I am moving to America. I'm very excited but nervous at the same time. since then I always kept a journal with me. every year, I would write, almost every day. most of the time, it was just pointless complaints about crushes and drama with my friends. it's sad how back then, I made all that time to write about pointless things, and now that I'm older (I'm 22 years old now) and have plenty of experiences and issues regarding topics that are bigger than myself... now I don't even take the time to write about it anymore. which is sad, and something I'd like to change. I'm starting this blog mostly for myself. although, it would be nice to have an audience and have some people read what I have to talk about, because really, I think news is better understood through a friend rather than a stranger. I know journalists have always tried to maintain their credibility by staying objective (which we all know... isn't totally true). I know that the people who own the biggest news corporations are the ones that control and frame the stories that are being delivered to the people. we're supposed to trust them, we're supposed to believe what they say. but where are these journalists coming from? are they poor like us? are they minorities like us? or are they just as privileged as the politicians and celebrities they continue to write stories about? I want to start talking about the stories that are unheard but need to be heard. I'm going to publish at least one post, once a week. I hope that you can all take the time to read about the underlying issues that are important for the growth of our society, because I think that we all need that reality check -- especially during this time full of hate and bigotry.