Since September, I have been working with Building
Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency’s Community Organizing Team. Every Friday,
we meet to discuss recent events in Alameda County and develop a social justice
curriculum that will be taught to people living in BOSS’s shelters. After the
meeting, we chat and find out what’s going in our lives besides activism.
Many of the people involved in COT currently had a
very different life a few years ago. All have a college degree - one used to be
teacher, another a therapist, and another a nurse but somehow through
unforeseen events became homeless and came to BOSS for help. Talking to them,
they have no regret of the journey their life has taken them. They may not be
middle class professionals anymore but somehow they feel more comfortable with
who they are today because they “keep it real.”
I don’t know completely what they mean by “keeping
it real” but the idea of that intrigues me. In this process of becoming
professionals that so many of us here at UC Berkeley are doing, is there something
we are losing among all that we gain through our education?
For me personally, I feel that I am losing the diversity and culture that I once got when I went to high school. My high school had students of different cultures and socioeconomic statuses and that is one of the things I valued the most from my high school. While going to UC Berkeley I am academically challenged, I feel that my exposure to diversity and culture is dwindling, and I feel as though I am living in another world. I know that there are lots of groups on campus that make their activities and cultures known to other students, but socially, our campus is very mono-cultured.
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