Stop at Nothing

I am twenty years old. In the last two weeks, my life has been flipped completely upside-down. I have gone from being just an intern sitting behind a desk to having to take on the responsibility of leading a team of 20 people, much more experienced than I, in the fight against criticism for trying to do what is right.

And I know what we are doing is right.

But this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. It is painful.

Imagine having your friend, a friend you love dearly and look up to, in poor mental and physical health, being mocked and laughed at and hated by millions of vocal people every day. More than that, imagine having your darkest and most out-of-self moment (and you know we've all had them) videotaped and on display for the world to see and laugh at and shape their idea of you as a person, and your life's work, around. It's not so hard, for me at least, to see why this is difficult.

I have worked for 12 days straight, working 12 hour days or longer, and all I hear is screaming. What I hear are thousands of people screaming at us, cursing, giving us the middle finger as we drive in our van. We, as interns, have given up everything to be here. But what we hear is screaming and hatred coming from every direction. It's painful. It hurts. Standing in a room with 100 of the most beautiful and incredible people I have ever been graced to know as we all stand in the face of thousands spitting our direction. Now I'm starting to understand what the apostles must have felt as they saw people spitting on the face of Jesus as He healed their sick.

I call on the world to find their humanity. We are a strong group of people here, and we can take this. We work towards a world where things just like this won't happen anymore. It would be naive to think that in doing so we won't have to look in the eyes of the people doing these things. We weren't expecting any of this, but we can take this. We fight now just like we always have. The only difference now is that we have people, a large and strong group of people, fighting back. But as strong as they may be, WE ARE STRONGER. There's nothing we can't do, because we know what we are doing is right.

We aren't the first group of idealistic people to receive this. Look at Martin Luther King. Look at Harriet Tubman. Look at the Women's Right's Movement. Look at the Freedom Riders. Every movement towards justice, towards positive change, that has ever existed in the world has been met with opposition. Why should we have a free pass? They were beaten, raped, and even killed for doing what was right. What are a few middle fingers and angry phone calls? It's hard, but we will press on. They didn't quit, and neither will we.

I am exhausted mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Seeing how much hatred their is towards my closest and most beautiful friends is harder than I can say. As a person of faith, I am starting to understand what I have read and heard. Jesus said that in the last days, the world would look at evil as good and good as evil. I'm staring it in the face now, confident that I stand on the side of the good. Whether the world can see that or not.

And after all of this suffering, I am proud to be a part of this movement. I am proud to stand where I stand. I am proud of our work and I will carry it to the end of the earth if that is what it comes down to. And I have friends here, beautiful and wonderful friends, ready to do it too. There is nowhere else I would rather be in this moment.

We will stand tall. We will work harder than ever before. We will not quit.

We will stop at nothing.