If not now, then when?
Fellow slugs, congratulations. If you’re reading this, you are graduating and ready to take on the world.
Except non of you were prepared by this outdated institution to do so.
Because in order to take on the world, you are being asked to challenge the status quo. To seek for reform, and to overthrow powers of oppression — one being corporatized higher education.
If you’re like me, you are entering a world of unknowns. It’s a thorny path to constantly struggle with this sense of hopelessness and apathy. It’s exhausting to always feel so powerless. To you, class of 2020, I have a message.
Rise. Up.
There’s nothing more to be said, really. You will feel beaten. You will feel cheated and scammed by an education that prioritized your immediate employment rather than training you to challenge the institutions perpetuating a deafening silence of your voice. Rise up against hopelessness. Rise up against apathy. Rise up against your self-defeatism.
When you’ve done so, and when you’re ready, I urge you to rise up, and find a way for you to fight.
Graduation is only the beginning. I know it’s been an exhausting journey so far. I’ve been there. I’ve been suicidal, and wandered in the dark for a long time. There were many more times I felt like giving up since graduating, but eventually I rose up.
You might feel overwhelmed with what’s happening in the world right now, and the kind of society you’ve now inherited. This is normal, precisely because we live in an abnormal world. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. There is another way to be.
Find it, imagine it, and communicate it. Connect with people and engage in dialogue constantly. Don’t ever let your flames be extinguished — don’t let the oppression win over your heart. Develop a thick skin, but don’t harden your hearts. Progress in your careers, but don’t abandon your souls. Lead with passion, and act swiftly and militantly.
Make no mistake, we all stand at the crossroads in history at this moment. The world is watching, and people are rising. I urge you all to stand on the right side of history... but most importantly, I urge you all to stand inside history. There are no excuses for being a bystander.
So I leave you with this question just one last time:
If not now, then when?
#blacklivesmatter