Coming Alive: Why I Became an Activist
When you’re a kid they tell you, “You can be anything you want when you grow up!” You can be the next president, an astronaut, or a princess. In my case, they told me I could change the world and for some insane reason I believed them. But as I am am turning in senior honors thesis, like many times in my life, I begin to question this aspiration. I am paralyzed by intense emotions of doubt and self-reflection.
I think of one of my favorite quotes, from Howard Thurman: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Then I think of a mammoth 80-page document examining the Rwandan genocide and what motivated civilians to participate in the violence.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
— Howard Thurman
I am wondering why I just spent a year writing and researching genocide. I am wondering if any of what I just did matters. And if we’re being perfectly honest, I am wondering if this will help me find a job after I graduate. But mostly, I am wondering why this, why human suffering?
My love for human rights work and activism developed when I was eleven years old. I know this sounds crazy and there are many events that influenced my life on the path from middle school to turning in my thesis, but in the seventh grade I went to a fundraiser for the South Sudanese Refugees in Boston. At that point, I had grown up in the comforts of privilege. This is not to say my world was without pain, but I had been sheltered from the brutality of war. When the Lost Boys described being driven out of their homes, fleeing to Ethiopia, trekking back across Sudan, and reaching the eventual safety of Kakuma refugee camp I was exposed to a whole new sort of suffering.
I spent the next few years volunteering with the Lost Boys at their community center and organizing protests about the developing situation in Sudan. Very young, I earned the moniker “activist” and it suited me. In the years since middle school I have developed my passion for human rights by working with different non-profits and research institutes, so in a way the thesis that I just submitted is a culmination of my life’s work thus far. It is an abstract description of who I am and what I want to do with my life.
Still, people constantly ask me about my “why.” They want to know why I do this. So tell the story of the South Sudanese and how it all started. But truth be told, I don’t know. I do this work because I love it, because I’m good at it, and because I am just crazy enough to have convinced myself that I can make a difference. To me, working on genocide prevention and human rights is like working with the world’s most complex Rubix cube. I am constantly trying to rearrange the puzzle pieces to understand why people are willing to be violent and how they get to the point where they kill each other. Writing a thesis on genocide was the next logical step in trying to understand and unwrap these issues.
I do this work because I love it, because I’m good at it, and because I am just crazy enough to have convinced myself that I can make a difference.
From the time I was a young kid to the moment I turned in my thesis, the answer to my “why” has always been the same — working on human rights makes me come alive. This doesn’t make me better than anyone; I’m not a martyr or a saint. It simply means I found what I love early on and held dearly to it. For some people their passion is baseball, visual art, or maybe history. I believe that we all need to pursue what we love in life, and find a way to use that to make the world better. Together, we might just be crazy enough to actually change the world.
For me, working on Together We Remember and contributing to this blog is another way to enact this change. By creating a platform and a space to remember and celebrate the victims of genocide, we are doing our part to continue their memories. Through this initiative we are making resounding statement to the perpetrators of this violence. Together we are saying, we will not let you eliminate them from society, you will not be successful perpetrating genocide, and together we will remember the memory of what you tried to destroy. #TogetherWeRemember
This is my first post in far-ranging series of stories about the #TogetherWeRemember campaign. Together, we’re igniting a viral, global movement to memorialize victims of different genocides. If you liked what you read, please join us on this journey by following, liking, commenting and sharing with friends! Contact Matthew King to learn about how you can contribute to this blog.
