I debated on whether or not I should post this. It is not necessarily “on brand”. But your response to my struggles during quarantine was incredible, and I hope that your response to this will be the same.
My mentor always tells us that at the beginning of every month we need to set our goals, determine our “word of the month” and set our intention of the month.
I’m pretty good at setting goals, but I often struggle to determine my word and my intention or mantra, so honestly I normally just skip that part. June was shaping up to be like any other month, until these words came to me:
Be humble. Be open. Be willing.
The world is a crazy place right now, but life in America has turned into something I never imagined it would be. I think this is a mantra we all need to live by right now. The words may have a different meaning to everybody, but this is what they mean to me:
Be humble. Regardless of your good intentions, you do not know everything. You may not be a person of color, so you can never truly relate to or understand what people have experienced their entire lives or what they are feeling right now amid yet another tragic, senseless death. You may not know what it is like to grow up witnessing racism in an urban setting, or on the flip side you may not know what it is like to grow up witnessing racism in small town America.When people you know or follow on social media post about their personal experiences with racism, listen to them. Allow the horrible things they are sharing to humble you.
Be open. Be open to the fact that you are not perfect. Be open to the fact that there are ways you can be better. Be open to other people’s worldviews. You may see the riots happening as senseless, while others may see the riots as a group of victims finally fighting back against their abusers. Just be open to hearing what other people have to say and be open to the possibility of having your mind changed.
Be willing. This is the most important of the three. We must all be willing. Be willing to admit to our mistakes. Be willing to admit that while we may not be racist, we certainly have not been as actively anti-racist as we should. Be willing to admit that our silence encourages violence. We must be willing to commit to learning more and doing more.
Then a bonus word for the month of June: Grace.
Give yourself grace.
These events are triggering for a lot of people. They have brought up a lot of repressed memories for me personally, so while I am experiencing waves of shame in my complacency, anger over this senseless murder, and despair as I mourn for the black community, I am also coming to terms with some other events in my life.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: It is okay to not be okay.
If you feel like you need to step away from all forms of media for your own mental health, I urge you to do it.
Pick up a beach read.
Have a dance party in your kitchen.
Put your phone in a drawer and refuse to look at it for 24 hours.
Do what you need to do to protect your mental health, but when you are refreshed I want you to come back with a vengeance.
As a creator, I have been torn on what my best course of action should be. As someone still starting out, I’ve worried about ceasing my usual content to focus on something that isn’t travel related. Consistency is key in this business. You can’t gain a following, get noticed by brands, or make money unless you are posting daily and creating a curated feed.
But life…real life…will never be a carefully and perfectly curated string of events. Life is messy and hard and between the crazy world pandemic and protests that echo the days of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, those words have never been more accurate.
Ultimately I have decided that I don’t care about maintaining an image at the moment because I am a person first, and at the end of the day I will be living with my own soul long after Vagarious Wanderer has run its course.
I do not judge anyone that is already getting back to their usual content already; I think we all need a little normalcy amongst the chaos. But I personally do not feel right posting my usual content at the moment. Sharing my post about what I have been reading during quarantine today just does not sit right with me at the moment.
So what will I be doing instead over these next few days?
On social media, I will be sharing resources in my Instagram stories for you to check out, as well as the experiences of others.
Offline, I will be learning, listening, and doing.
If you are unsure how you can help or where you can learn more, I strongly encourage you to check out the free resource that Melyssa Griffin put together called Anti-Racism for Beginners (linked).
To my white friends and followers, Gloria Atanmo of The Blog Abroad put together an incredible resource to tell you what you should or should not be saying to your black friends right now. I can’t figure out how to embed it at the moment, but here is a link to her post on Instagram.
I could put together my own personal list of resources for all of you, but I don’t think anything I put together will be nearly as helpful as some of the ones already out there.
For those that have made it this far in this post that has absolutely nothing to do with travel:
Thank you.
I love you.
We can, and we will, be better. I know this because just the fact that you read this whole article means that you care and are willing to put in the work to bring more good to the world.
As always, stay safe, sane, and vigilant. xx