Small but Mighty

Almost immediately after I met her, one of my supervisors said “oh my gosh, you are so tiny.” In response, Grace, my other supervisor– and fellow short person– said “that’s us. Powerful but tiny women.” 

“Powerful but tiny woman,” pretty much sums up my entire life. In a lot of ways, I feel small. Sometimes… okay, often… because of my height. But other times, it’s because we live in a massive world with seemingly insurmountable injustices. Or, because Cornell is a petri dish of 15,000 highly qualified, ambitious, and passionate people that seem to have it all figured out. At least, according to their LinkedIns. 

Sometimes, I feel powerful. I feel powerful when I give a speech in front of people that (have to) listen to what I have to say. Or when I have a screaming fight with the North Carolina Superintendent because she was lying about public education funding. That’s a true story. Today, I felt powerful because all of the community partners we heard from are doing incredible, impactful grassroots work that is actively improving people's lives. Sitting in that *very loud* room with dozens of inspiring people made me believe that progress really is possible and that we can have a role in achieving it. Honestly, I felt like we could change the world. And not in like, the inspirational-poster-in-your-underfunded-public-high-school type of way. In more of a I-want-to-be-Lou-Jean-Fleron-when-I-grow-up kind of way. 

Hearing from Professor Fleron, the PPG staff, and community partners addressing everything from labor rights to equitable public transit access showed me that you really can make a career out of leaving somewhere better than how you found it. I could not be more excited to work with my powerful, tiny supervisor Grace and the rest of 1199 SEIU.