Get as involved as you can
You can't be all activist, all the time. If nothing else, you have to
sleep sometime. You also can't be purely non-activist. By choosing not
to directly step onto the person lying on a grate, you have made a
statement that this person deserves some amount of respect.
Everything is relative. There is a continuum of activism, and each of
your actions falls somewhere within that continuum. You can make a bar
graph of your actions which shows where you fit within the continuum, to
show your activist tendencies.
What does that mean in plain English? Some stuff you do will be
activist; other stuff will not. Activist people tend to do activist
things; non-activist people tend to do non-activist things.
Find the area on the continuum where you work best. This place in
unique to each person. Not everyone is set out to lead a march to City
Hall, but everyone can do something. A person is no better or worse
because of how much they can do. It's your responsibility to determine where
your level is, and to work to it.
Once you've found your level, you may want to work to increase it. A
surprising phenomenon that may "activist-types", including myself, will
tell you is that the more you do, the more time you find to do it in. As
a freshman, with 4 classes and an 8-hour a week job, I thought I was
unbearably busy. Now, I look back and laugh. So, try adding an hour
every two weeks to your schedule. You'd be amazed ho it fits in.
Word of caution: Beware of overextending yourself. Yes, it's
great to do a lot, but it's no good to do massive amounts of work for
two weeks but then burning yourself out so that you don't do anything for
the rest of the semester.
You're the only one who knows how you work best. Find that place and
work to improve it.
Related Pages
Cash in on the great feeling you get
The Perfect Standard and why it's bad
Don't wait for the ideal issue
It's OK to be a "one issue person"
It's all interrelated
So you're ready to get involved
Republished with permission from
Activism 101 by kerig@sas.upenn.edu