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To me, people are inherently valuable, and the point of it all is to improve one another’s lives to forge a better future. Since our actions today create the reality of tomorrow, let us all conspire to intentionally craft the best world we can.
Projects I Support
I believe that if we choose, we can leave the world a better place than we found it. To that end I actively choose to give my time and money to projects that bring value to the community.
Blog
Learn a little about my journey. I hope you will find here, parts of my story, photos, samples of my bad fiction, and the occasional ponderings on the meaning of life.
About Me
Raised below the poverty line by my single mother, I struggled academically as I grappled with dyslexia and a blind left eye. Add to that the fact that as a Bi-racial queer kid, I always stuck out and I ended up bullied until my mother made the sacrifice to home-school me.
She and my adopted dad instilled generosity, empathy, and gratitude deep within me from childhood. I volunteered at the Salvation Army, mowing lawns, giving out food, and cleaning toilets my entire youth and adolescents. We collected recycled bottles and cans and bought thousands of dollars worth of bicycles for families in India. We supported children and families all over the world, their pictures adorning our kitchen fridge.
They served as a reminder of my privilege and of the larger world, bigger than the one I grew up in. Suddenly, a poor kid in the foothills of Northern California aspired to travel the world. Being a young adult, working minimum wage jobs with no higher education or healthcare made saving the money to make that first leap challenging.
It took dedication, hard work and a vision but, in the end, I successfully traveled the world on a shoestring, backpacking the Middle East, Europe, and Asia while working as an educator. I craved knowledge and experience and after scrimping and saving for over a year, left the US to embark on what would be the first of several backpacking trips around the world where I spent the next eight years, teaching English, Art, and Computers in a few different countries.
None of my adventures were glamorous. I intentionally avoided high-class tourist destinations and attractions staying in hostels and even, at times, sleeping outside. I traveled the European countryside, dusty Middle-east desert highways, and pothole ridden Southeast Asia jungle roads by bus, motorcycle taxi, took took, and thumb; lugging a five-foot, five-ton hiking backpack containing all of my worldly possessions for many years. While I stayed a few years here or there, the backpack was never far, and when I did finally return home, its contents were, once again, everything I owned.
Despite the ostensible modesty of my modes of travel, I had rich and meaningful experiences that impacted who I am to this day. The world molded my mindset, modifying my perspectives on religion, philosophy, science, and the nature of reality. I meditated with monks on mountaintops, danced on beach and desert sands till sunrise, and explored ancient, jungle ruins, castles, and tombs. During my time traveling I saw deep poverty and immense wealth, human suffering, and incredible natural beauty.
The West Bank in Palestine made me vow to work to make the world a better place. Living through a revolution in Egypt awoke me politically, and seeing people living off a dollar a day in Cambodia compelled me to empathy and gratitude.
After I returned home to the US I was again completely impoverished. During that transitional period, I was homeless for months as I worked to save enough money to buy a car and rent a room. Thankfully, walking distance from the shelter was a Taco Bell where I got a job. A few blocks down from there was the community college where I enrolled in classes and four years later I received a bachelor’s in Political Science from UC Davis.
After Stephon Clark was killed I vowed to make Sacramento a better place. I marched in the streets, lobbied my representatives, and donated money to the movement. I studied Civil Rights, and racism in policing, conducted research on the justice system and police misconduct, and made every assignment an opportunity to learn more about rights and the history and challenge of institutional racism in America.
Because my goal is to make the greatest impact possible, after I graduated, I got a job working in politics to try and help the most people to the best of my ability, a goal that remains with me today. I view myself as an advocate and I strive to use my knowledge and skills to help connect the community with tools and resources to help make a difference. I strive to elevate the voices of those who might not otherwise have the opportunities to be heard and my goal for the future is to expand my ability to help the community by serving their interest and representing their needs in whatever capacity I can.
So far, I have survived childhood poverty, a popular revolution, physical assault, attempted robbery, and homelessness. I’ve stared down the barrels of tanks, and faced off with soldiers and police. I have been teargassed, shot at, stabbed, punched, and interrogated and, in truth, this is hardly half of the story. I hope to someday tell it in its entirety, if anyone is interested.
I have learned a lot on my journey, and I continue to learn more every day. Fundamentally, however, I learned that people are inherently valuable, and the point of it all is to attain our fullest potential and better one another’s lives to forge a better future. Since our actions today create the world of tomorrow, let us conspire to intentionally craft a better world, now.
“The meaning of life is to achieve your greatest potential, the purpose of life is to give it away.” – A slightly adapted version of some bumper sticker.
See you out there.
G.
