CLH Words

I wrote this piece during a community writing workshop I helped host on a Discord server I am a part of. The prompt was “What is your ideal future and how does community play into it?” I think these short reflection really captures several of my beliefs and gives good insight into what I am trying to do.

In the future I want, I am not an afterthought. I want a world where accessibility is built in. A society designed for all. I want to be able to exist as myself with others who are themselves without barriers. In the future I want, people are free to exist. People do not have to earn their humanity, prove that they deserve a place, in my future. Everyone is welcome, for my future is for everyone.

               Community is not the ends, nor the means, but both. We do not reach the future I want without building community. The future I want is built not by the few, but by everyone. Everyone comes together to change the world for themselves. And the future I want is not built for the few. It is built for all. Community is how we build it, but also why we build it.

               In my future, the myth of independence is shattered. No one can be truly alone. Everything, everyone, is connected. Everyone works for themselves and for everyone else. In the future I want, there are no outcasts, no hopeless cases, no one to lock away or ignore. In my future, there are no heroes, no saviors, no entrepreneurs. No one is truly independent, for in my future everyone exists within community.

               Those around us, both chosen and not, are our community. Currently, they are fractured, locked away behind barriers, artificially created in mass. In my future, communities are whole. Those around us exist with us. It is not perfect; there are disagreements, annoying neighbors, and difficult times, but there is peace and the knowledge that we will still be there for each other. I will begin to mend these cracks in our community. I have started already; by reaching out to my neighbors, friends, and family, by talking, helping, loving, and existing together, I have began to heal these cracks. I do not do it alone. Of course, I don’t. Those around me are working towards the future too. Together we will mend these cracks. Together we will be a community. And with community, we will have the future I want. We will have the future that we want.