What was your first political act?
Connecting to an idea of something bigger than yourself
The basic premise of Politicolor is that we can make it easier to see what active citizens do, how they push against opposition or the status quo and connect with allies, and that showing our work will improve the likelihood that our communities will overflow with good work.
At the very least, we will learn from one another and connect through the ups and downs of civic work.
This question invites us all to go back to the beginning:
What was your first political act? When do you remember first becoming aware of being a part of a political world beyond your family, your house, etc.? That you could take action and be part a part of something much larger than the “known world” around you?
We have a solid start with stories that include football, newspaper flags, classroom moments, and letters to all the popular kids. Check out the whole collection here. The question will take you back to moments in time you haven’t thought about in ages. These stories work that way too. Be sure to check them out as you start thinking about how to tell your story.
At each stop in your own political history, you’ll ask yourself where you got those ideas and if that was really the first time you took a stand. When you finally land on that first time, write that story and share it here.
We would love to see your story become part of this collection. We all have to start somewhere, and we hope these stories will help someone find their start too.
How to Submit Your Story
The story doesn’t have to be long. 300 to 500 words will yield an easy 3-minute read. Longer posts of 650 to 800 words do well too. Write your story using Medium and share a draft link via our contact page.
If writing here is new to you, Medium makes writing on the web super easy. This quick tutorial will help you get started.
Your story should be well formatted, including subheadings and images (with proper attributions) to sustain interest, and be free of errors. Our editors will aim to publish your work unchanged but will correct obvious typos, add photos and adjust some formatting when necessary.
Thanks for reading and thinking about sharing your story. We, of course, would love a “clap” here, but also suspect you’ve been described as civic-minded. We would love to keep thinking together, so please consider signing up for our Questions of Civic Proportions email.
