What you’ll hear in this episode:

• What Rosa Rebellion is
• The work Rosa Rebellion does
• REBEL + REST

Virginia Cumberbatch and Megan Harding are two friends making noise and making an impact. Both women have impressive day jobs on top of being the founders of Rosa Rebellion, a platform for creative activism by and for women of color. Virginia is the director of the Center for Community Engagement and the Social Justice Institute at the University of Texas where they address issues of equity and access in the community. Megan is a civil rights attorney and does constitutional litigation for the state-wide nonprofit, Texas Civil Rights Project.

Through meeting and sharing ideas about activism and inclusivity the pair founded Rosa Rebellion in 2018 after realizing that that activism spaces lack the voices of women of color. The platform has become a self-described think and do tank that supports creative projects which serve to cultivate, celebrate, and liberate. They support and amplify creative projects, programs, and productions by women of color that serve to tell stories of resistance, resilience, and radical change.

Their project REBEL + REST is a retreat for social activists and advocates to rest, giving them space to turn off, decompress, and heal from the difficult and taxing work they do. Rosa Rebellion launched at South by Southwest 2019 with REBEL + REST as an activation where they created a mini-retreat, and were able to create a conversation and bring their mission to a larger audience.

To hear more about Rosa Rebellion, their projects, and how they’re amplifying the voices of creative women of color activists, tune into the eleventh installment of Great Society. If you enjoy the episode then be sure to share it with friends and colleagues. You can listen to more Great Society here.

Great Society is a founding_media podcast created in partnership with Constance Dykhuizen.

Host: Constance Dykhuizen

Guests: Virginia Cumberbatch and Megan Harding

Find Rosa Rebellion on Instagram

Transcript:
this is a founding media podcast if or or hi everyone welcome to great society podcast about people who are working to elevate the voices of others I’m your host content stickies and my guest today Virginia Cumberbatch and Meghan Harding founders of rose a rebellion the platform for creative activism by and for women of color we had a lot of fun talking about not letting fear keep you from getting started and social impact a side hustle here’s my conversation with Virginia and Meghan hi everyone welcome the great society I’m your host constant state uses I’m here today with Virginia Cumberbatch and Megan Harding over its rebellionÂ
thanks ladies for coming thank you for having us work site is I want to start at the beginning how did you two meet hello guys is it’s a really interesting story kinda I guess we have a mutual best friend and she moved so she would say that everything that we’ve accomplished is because of her so shout out to Tamera thank you and suddenly emerging as we see each other a lot in like different community circles and a lot of Tamara’s things would overlap so we would see each other there but when she moved we really started to like hang out and get together to talk about shared ideas and shared passions and just work intimacy is is because she left such a big void in our life that we had to fill it with the N. and none of this would have happened without and I had a little bit more context we had a launch event at south by lax in March of twenty nineteen and she insisted that that be a part of my remarks look out her leaving are basically desperate investor Cadiz you know that we wouldn’t have found each other I have been able to create this space togetherÂ
how did you to know that you were kind of safe people to go and talk to about ideas and things like that because I feel like I have friends that I you know they’re they’re playing out with and I have friends are kind of like my great society friends for like I gather and talk about ideas and work and stuff like that how did you all know that you are looking at kind of a kindred spirit in that way that’s a good question because I think there is an ongoing sort of anxiety and fear because I’m for mission move so quickly and even if we don’t want it to be there for a little bit like a competitive spirit around I’m generating ideas creating spaces now particularly with social media we like I thought I had you know someone else had already agreed at that so I think identifying people in your community that you know that you can go to to share ideas get feedback and people that you feel really be invested in you right is important I think I knew that about Megan and simply because one we had a shared faith and I think our understanding of the way that god works is that we all have individual callings right and I think we have community collective callings and so what is meant for us can’t be stolen or taken by an individual if god has entrusted us with those that work in those ideas and so that for me was a part of my trust with Megan and then I think really early on we realize that we had very different strings and very different ways of coming around ideas so it never felt like well may not share this because she may run with this instead it felt very complimentary because we had it was both useful and reassuring that we kind of came to ideas three different path yeah and I think a lot of our work in the community overlap so I was kind of in the justice space in the legal arena in Virginia was everywhere but I think that you it was apparent that we had shared values around equity and inclusion and disruption disrupting normative systems and then we had the same ethos which was really clear really early but for me it was also that we we did have the same face our foundation was the same and so there was just kind of this automatic trespass built in for meÂ
I wanna talk about rose a rebellion and a second organization he founded together but can you tell me a little bit about your day jobs first sure so for the past three years I’ve served as the director of the center for community engagement and the social justice institute which is housed at the university of Texas and a larger portfolio called the division of diversity and community engagement and I came to that work pretty much because of my sort of already investment in conversations around diversity equity the idea of systemic racism and how it was still stronghold in the city that I was both born and raised in and I come back to to work but I came to that work a little different of a perspective or mindset rather than just sort of policy was also around storytelling which is sort of the way in which I see the use of this as a very powerful tool to disrupt systems and to elevate historically marginalized voices and so in that work what we do my job is basically if I distill it down to a few words is to sort of leverage the resources of the university to address issues of equity in access in the community and so we focus on affordability education equity health and health care access and cultural place keeping and part of that work is building trust with the community that the university has not always been a good neighbor to yeah and I am a civil rights attorney and do constitutionally cation for a statewide nonprofit this actually been around since nineteen ninety and it was founded by Jim Harrington who is a community figure here in Austin and a pioneer it’s call Texas civil rights project and I focus specifically on criminal justice reform so and I’ve been on both sides of the criminal justice system I was a prosecutor prior to that and so I kind of bring in a liens that understands how the system works from the inside and we really focus on impact litigation so my job is to look for areas where constitutional rights might be violated and then see if there is a legal remedy or if there needs to be a public education piece or if we just need to do advocacy to raise awareness around what’s happening in any given area of criminal justice so that could be anywhere from on the front end which would be policing all the way to the back in which is people who are in prison brownÂ
I want to have your back to sift to talk about your day job that’s good to know thank you come in so why was a rebellion what how did that come to be what did you want that to be calm sure so you know kind of going back to this idea of sort of a shared ethos I think that both in our individual spheres we were working around disrupting systems but ringing about equity really pushing back on a local level with the narrative that Austin is a liberal progressive utopia gray inclusive space and because of the work that we do but also just because of our lived experience an understanding that that narrative does not hold wait for everyone who navigates the space right and that there’s a danger to us focusing on just that conversation and not peeling back the layers to realize that we are actually also the most economically segregated city in the country of the city of this size that we are simultaneously losing our black population and realizing because of the spaces that we navigate and particularly in leadership and spaces of decision making that the voices of particularly of women of color oftentimes absent and because our work extends beyond awesome beyond Texas we were seeing that as sort of a national trend right is that where are the voices of women of color who are disrupting the systems at a grassroots level not being given the platform to do it in a way that can be sustainable and can be expanded and so that was sort of the general conversationÂ
and then we started kind of sharing ideas about documentary filmmaking and different projects that we wanted to take on and so we we actually really love telling the story of this lake one day at a coffee shop sat out to figure eight that’s what happened yeah and we were like Hey let’s just get together and start sharing some ideas Megan had a idea for a project so I’ve been holding on to this name rose rebellion for about three or four years like the man came to me and it seemed to kind of encapsulate all the things that I felt I was doing it was a sort of the intersection of resistance we ate the story obviously inspired by Rosa Parks this idea of history of the lens for doing this work and I just kind of put on the shelf because what you said it was like I have a day job and I’m doing this work and out of time to think about other things I just shared the name with me again and I was like and in general these are things I’m thinking about it could be and she was like that’s dope you need to do something else okay cool yeah whatever and she literally stole my laptop went to go Daddy dot com and bought all the domains forming on her good address that’s a good that’s a great friends like talk about like literal investment in your work and your ideas and having a cheerleader and then it was more than that it wasn’t just like cool now if purchase you this these domains that we started really kind of spit balling some ideas of the different things that could live underneath that umbrellaÂ
yeah and I had been working for years a number of years in my local church to build conversations around race and inclusion we did politics which was significantly harder than race because you know what race you have the same basis right don’t be racist but when it comes to politics is a bit harder but we had really you know started to do it a little bit before there was like this boom where people started to say we need to talk about these things and so there was no model really for us and so we built the curriculum and we fell on our face a lot and we learned a lot but doing that work coupled with being a prosecutor coupled with being a person who was out in the community started to kind of take its toll right like your navigating the systems that weren’t built for you and you’re trying to deconstruct them and at the same time change hearts and minds and and raise awareness in kind of a deal with people where they are with the level of grace that really is costly for you as a person and so you know I had this moment where there was Mike brown’s shooting had happened and I was a prosecutor Dan and then there was falando Casteel and Alton sterling and I remember going to work the day after those shootings happened the days after the shootings happened I remember you know being the only black person room I mean really really the impact it and really struggling with the double consciousness of being a prosecutor working in a system and also how I was impacted and I just started to realize that there are advocates and activists that are fighting these systems and it’s really taking a toll on their mental wellness and they might not be taking stock of it they don’t have the resources to protect it so I really wanted to do something around that and my idea was to do these retreats all over the country that would be free of cost for activists advocates and to come in really just focus on their mental wellness and take a break and just rest so out of that came rebel and rest and that idea naturally aligned with Russell rebellion and it became our first project and so it kind of just evolved through the sharing of ideas and understanding where we alignÂ
and I think I don’t remember when we came up with the name Evelyn as might have been the same day or days later but there’s just this natural synergy about you know creating a space for these type of ideas could be birth and be supported and what we realize and so that sort of mission tagline for rose or billion is a platform for creative activism by and for women of color
and I think what’s been really special for us is to realize that you know you ask the question around you know why do we do this when we both have you know very full I. N. and jobs that demand a lot but I think often times the best ideas are birth twin the impetus is because you don’t see something that affirms who you are and that can truly carry the weight of some of the little sort of labors and attention so you have to navigate every single day and for us it felt like there was no space for particularly women of color who are disrupting the systems to be supported in a way that that works doesn’t have to sit in a silo and that worked as deserves to be affirmed and elevate it and that was sort of the same ethos around rebel and rest is that these are activists who are on the front lines every single day to advocate for their community to not be shot down in the streets to have health care and health care system that truly values who they are to be able to navigate education system that affirms their humanity and to you know uplift communities that have historically been economically disenfranchised and that takes a toll on you and I think what we really wanted to do in this project was to elevate the fact that racialized trauma is a real thing and be having a huge physical mental spiritual impact on particularly black activist lives and if we don’t invest in that in the idea of creating a space where we equip them to take care of their mental wellness we’re gonna lose a generation of activists and we’ve already seen that happen the death of Erica garner who is the daughter of Eric Gardner who for three four years on the front lines of police activism and it had a heart attack at twenty nine like those things you know R. S. surely connected in some way and then just the the depression and sort of anxiety about this being stirred up in a generation of people that are being inundated by images of you know black bodies not being valued and so it’s been a true sort of like privilege for us to create that spaceÂ
so what comes what comes first when you’re creating the space is it funding is that you start telling stories to get funding or like how do you get started yeah you know we are figuring it out but I’ll say it with rebel and rest we had a great opportunity to premiere at south by southwest and that allowed us a larger audience but really it was just about let’s get out there and watched let’s start raising awareness around the problem and start to talk about this need in this whole and then see where the support comes and at south by we were able to work with Chloe who’s awesome and really had a great shout out to Chloe and shout out to Kelly who is now on our board of advisors for resident alien and we were able to create a kind of a mini retreat and I think that that was important for a number of reasons and we wanted to raise the conversation we wanted to bring it to our audience that was diverse but we wanted to center blackness which is what we did with that day and so you know it’s really about seeking getting our message out there and then see where the opportunities take Q. and then seizing those opportunities because south by gave us a full day and me in Virginia at first we were just like did we just have like thirty minutes we’ll do thirty minute panel and then they were like oh no we think we can do a whole day and we like danced on the phone and we were like going crazy was on mute and and we were so excited but then we hung up and realizing we have to plan a full day of programming for for south by so it was definitely a daunting and you know even just you know to backtrack a little bit on your your question I think often times when we were creating things that we feel can have a real impact in the community about can help address the problem right a solution based you oftentimes are kind of hunkered down in the conversation in a silo you in your head or your partner’s head right and you’re like well we see the need to someone else even even so for us it was really important to create a process where we sort of assessed our community so we did a survey on Instagram and on Twitter we did a survey on the mailing list for actress everything down to the what the what the spurs the space was four we went back and forth between is rubble rest as a project for people of color at large right people who self identify as people of color or is it for black activists and we felt just in this current climate but it was important to create a space because while their shared experiences very nuanced historical experiences and contemporary policies that are impacting communities differently and so we felt like it was important to create a space that connected to the black diaspora andÂ
then from there you know so little I think the south by proposals do like in three days I think maybe we should submit to south but she’s like it’s due in three days and I was like and is that this is how a lot of things Virginia is is the kind of process person the spread sheets that kind of thing and I’m an IT Eder and and very big picture so we worked but I basically do is she tells so I was like yeah we can do it three days we know what we want to do another gonna doesn’t hurt and it was just good practice I think and I think that’s oftentimes we allow like our fear of how an idea is going to be perceived or because we don’t have all that the ice dot in the tease crossed that were like we shouldn’t pursue this because the ultimate goal is to do this and I don’t see the full path yeah which I think it’s it’s like business plans are important strategy is important but I think there’s also something to be said about being open to opportunities that don’t always seem linear and so we submitted a site plan and also just being like sure okay whatever’s going to happen is going to happen we actually ended up through unusual connection so Kelly cross who oversees programming saw our proposal and connectedness to Chloe and back to that fateful conference call we like yes we just want to do like a panel where we invite some activists to talk about their experience like we want to invest in more conversations around social justice and equity how about a full day and we’re like wait come again and would like at that point we had no funding no speakers no speakers confirm distressing but let’s see what else wasn’t in play but we knew that if we created the space in the platform we have a logo finalized that was clearly not not plugged yeah so it was like all these things were in new because it was important to you that people would show other able to show up and it actually ended up I think working really well because it gave us rather than just kind of working on this and sort of you know with all the time and no sort of strategic sort of end goal is like okay we’re working towards our lunch which is going to be at south by and it also gave us such a great platform in a space that nurtured sort of the work in the conversations and I mean everything just fell into place it was kind of insane and incredible uses C. mazingÂ
but that for us I think also solidified that this was a needed space there so much affirmation in people whose lived experience where it connected to it I mean we had everything from how are you going to we want to make sure that this space is open to everyone well we all know south by badges are twelve to sixteen hundred dollars yeah that doesn’t really align with sort of our value set and so stop I was like you know what will allow you guys to keep to make your it for their program open to the public know batch needed to okay we want to make sure the speakers that were inviting and because we want to invest in activists don’t have to pay for lodging or or the airfare and we had a friend donate their lake house to house all of our speakers like things like that where you and till you put yourself out there you don’t know what people are willing to invest in it I think putting yourself out there ski for doing it you said something earlier about you know being scared to sleep you know there’s a a lot of like well it’s the website perfect we we did a radio interview with the no website like people are calling in asking for a website and would like Twitter Instagram the N. and the response was great and you also don’t know what you need and there were times when you know we needed that encouragement we needed to know that people would respond well and you kinda have to just put yourself out there and don’t worry about everything being perfect if you have the perfect logo if the website is perfect if all of that like just if you have an idea and you feel in your bones in your gut that it is is good and I was calling in your filling a need and it can be impactful then to start to talk about it and see where it takes you when oneÂ
so I tell stories and part of my work I work for some nonprofits and help them tell stories through their branding and things like that and I kind of want to ask you a question with with all humility like how for the future of storytelling too do you guys want or invision like how do we all get together and tell stories or how do we how do we tell stories that impact of the kind of people support you who are people of color how do people listen like who do you want to listen to your stories who do you want to help you pay for your stories like me as a storyteller like what stories do I tell do you all think very much about those stories in conversation for sure anybody can pay for the service so I think you know storytelling is very much at the crux of every project and so the area’s vertical areas of focus for rose rebellion so we won impact for spaces one publications just a little fact about a ninety one percent of op ed written by white males in this country which is highly problematic if you think about the ways that narrative impact policy in practice right so that’s one of the spaces we went just wrapped production in terms of documentary is and then special projects like rebel and rest and the policy and so all of those in our through our sort of value set are in powered through story and while we’ve created a space that is before in the sense that we are helping to elevate the experiences and stories of women of color and we want to empower women of color to own their own stories because we know that that those are being co opted by folks in that that the audience is still broadly the full community because with out vats cooperative proper ation or collective mentality that we aren’t going to make true disruption in the spaces and so you know going back a little bit to the way that we felt fully supported in the process you are lunch at south by it was actually seeing mostly white women come around us and invest in us because they had seen the ways in which the systems that they navigate everyday right were serving to marginalized or disenfranchised women of color people of color while in some ways maintaining positions of power right and so for us that was such a powerful reminder that we need to think collectively because with out that collective vision or that collective buy in the end result will still proved to be desperate in the sense of who gets to partake in it and who gets to be on the receiving end of it and so you know we’ve been kind of joking around around the idea that like somewhat white women who came around us and truly became in some ways our biggest champions and I think the same is to be set around storytelling is the think through when you have a platform or when you have a voice are you serving to uplift the full community right are you serving to maintain systems of power that often you are used to oppress certain communities historically and and contemporary contextÂ
also think you know when I think about how we center stories on and how we tell our stories we recently with black girl in om just did like this live Twitter unlike Festetics is what you would call it a shot yeah but basically it was around like creating black culture in one of the questions was what’s one thing that you can commit to and the next month that will help you to continue to create black culture and contribute and the thing that I said was to be a less fearful storyteller I think that you know we’re used to editing ourselves to make normative cultures like comfortable and I think that when I think about allies are people who can come along side us or and people who will really really support us it’s being okay with them being OK with being uncomfortable and not censoring normative culture and that can feel uneasy at first and then us also learning and practicing really some models and being fearless in the way that we tell our stories and being unapologetic and then I also think that people often ask me so what I’ve done with conversations people often ask me you know how can I come alongside you and use my privilege and I think south by was a really really good example of that you had in K. from hiatus spa who like not only did she like donate things to us and donate massages to us that we could give to these activists but she also came the day the whole day full and actually immersed herself and learned a lot herself I believe about what life is like for this for black activists and racialized trauma and all that and then like live tweeted like you know like that’s real support she got in there with us and then she also used her access to health care and I think the other piece is you know for me a lot of my contacts comes from having a historical understanding of the spaces I navigate and I think that’s really important for all storytellers because I think sometimes we oftentimes want to be reactive in our storytelling like what’s happening in twenty nineteen right why are we why am I respond to this is usually emotional writer there’s a connection and I think we would all it would service all really well if we had a better understanding of the context and historical narrative around those those stories because oftentimes will probably identify like so the impetus for that is a little different or actually the people should be credited for that it’s a little different than what I thought it wasÂ
and so I would also encourage us the storytellers to also be you know in some ways sort of anthropologists and archaeologists and historians and I think but the last piece about story telling that I think is really critical unit to go along side Megan’s talk around being brave and courageous and bold in our storytelling is also to realize that we can’t you know we often think of discomfort right as a warning sign to revert back to what’s comfortable but that’s often times instead just a little bit of a inclination that you might be on the edge of growth are on the edge of shifting a spacer shifting a process and maybe a few months ago I was asked by a certain publication if I would write for them and you know the idea was that I was gonna write for them around conversations of social justice and race within the context of faith at least that was my understanding if you’re gonna ask me to write those things I’d be writing about and so I put together an article that was focused on sort of the need for face faith spaces to be more implicitly of connected to and nurturing conversations of social justice and when I turned in my first draft there is this huge sort of like pushed back like oh this is going to alarm our readers they’re not ready for this and I’m like what like what’s the trigger warning exactly like I mean it was nothing do you know super intense I think I’d mentioned like a few movements like the dreamers and black and those were all the words that were highlighted and you know I it was the response was even sort of based in this is like you know I think the Bible ask us to you know meet people where they are and I was a kid but there’s also some biblical just a radical things around like how do we move people outside of their spaces of comfort and if you guys are really trying to incite change then we need to challenge people and so I think for those of us that have spaces to really think about like where are we willing to go like are we willing to kind of spread yeah or expand sort of the confines of that not to step outside the purpose of the mission of the vision of that space but if we are really committed to helping to shift ideas and encourage people to build understanding what’s the work that we have to do as individuals as storytellers to make sure that we’re truly willing to invest in that work so I think I already know based on what you all said what the answers will be but what do you advise people to do her maybe have a day job and want to get involved with like as a social impact side hustle or want to make a change or want to tell stories on the side do you have I know you said you said jump you don’t even look into start jumping do you have any practical advice I think yes a fair you know a lot but we did have some plans
 and we we were somewhat we were methodical it specially in the way that we engage the community I do not encourage people thought ical but right I don’t encourage people to go in and try to help the community they have not engaged I you know really it it was incremental give yourself time that seems like the opposite of what I just said it was a year and a half it’s not right but we yeah what I mean about jumping is just not letting fear stop you from from talking about your idea but we certainly spent time I mean there were you know seven AM meetings we would like to just get together for like an hour and a half before we go into the office there’s the late nights and so I would say like remember your why there was a time when we had so much going on I think it’s important to talk about like our our regular lives and how busy they were because you know I’m a full time lawyer Allen’s of I was a parent for a year that’s a long story but as a parent for year my husband ran for office I mean there was so much going on leading the thing at my church and so allowing ourselves to just kind of incrementally make step so one of the things that Virginia did that I think was really key was in the beginning she created like this spreadsheet this is probably like meeting two or three like we’re about to go by the LLC and she created the spreadsheet of things that needed to be done to get us to a certain point you just broken down to bite sized portions and we just try to check off like one thing you know like a we look at her yeah and so like and we would celebrate it like we would turn it’s a great so when we bought the LLC I think like you put that in like completed and we’re like you know so let’s celebrate those small moments into this you know allow your why to drive you through kind of the the parts that are pretty Monday and I think you know we’ve both had this experience which was but I think part of the reason why we aligned so well in the beginning of our friendship in the beginning of our partnership when I first got back from so I went to college on the east coast and came back to Austin and and was sort of thrust into adulthood and I got really ingrained and sort of community work pretty much within that first year of being back and was running a nonprofit organization in addition to my my job and I got honestly burnt out probably about three four years and where I felt like I was saying yes to everything because everything felt important everything felt urgent was also the time in our city where black millennials were leaving by the like the hundreds because they don’t feel like that a place here both culturally as well as opportunities to matriculate into leadership and so I felt and by no sense was I doing alone there’s a group of us that felt very connected and invested in creating those spaces M. you know Megan has had moments that similarly where we felt burnt out we felt exhausted and I think what’s really important sort of the critical difference between walking in purpose and walking and something that you feel called to do is that it’s not necessary to say yes to everything right it is necessary to be willing to participate in things that are connected to that purpose into that why and then be willing to elevate other people to fill those other needs like I’ve gotten really good at like I can’t say yes whatever twenty five other people that can say yes and otherwise they are going to get that space for that platform and so sitting in that space where you’re willing to bring other people into the conversation other people into that sort of that privilege that power and I think for me once you know that that is something that your call to order for filling a need it kind of it it pushes itself it doesn’t feel I mean they’re exhausting times or times of anxiety but it doesn’t feel as heavy when you are having to sort of Wade through doing things that you’re just doing to do that because it might seem like it’s gonna make you know something else happened or you have to take say yes to everything and everything yeah and I think also we went with activism in particular like social causes right it’s real I do think it’s really important to learn t
he history and engage the community that you want to impact and that might take a little bit of time because what you think they need they might not need are they might have tried before yeah like that’s like yeah or there might be room so there you know every chance I get I tell people to read about the nineteen twenty eight plan in Austin because I think people think that they’re changing Austin is a great and should be celebrated but there’s a history in Austin that has dis enfranchised entire group of people this now being disenfranchised and displaced again and there’s worms there right and so I think that keep us just us as individuals we have a responsibility to engage in kind of deep dive on the history and what might be laying below the surface on the things that we want to impact this week could be well intentioned but you know intent versus impact I think is important yeah what’s next for reserved only in so we are sort of still riding the wave of south by but really excited to begin to develop a full retreat for rebel and rest and our hope is to do it before then this year and then the other areas that we are beginning to develop our around a cohort for women of color to be serve trained and equipped to begin to penetrate the world of op ed’s I like their financing on that because that status horrifying something super tangible in terms of audience they exactly so that’s our hope and so will be sort of developing with the program’s going to look like it’ll be sort of an application process and a cohort of women that we really come around to support them and show them how to really elevate their voices in those spaces connected to social impact on policy change and then this is a question that I’ve asked everybody on the podcast how do you define success for yourself in particular I mean it can be specifically about was a rebellion or can be how you evaluate you guys have so much going on so how do you think about define or measure success because I think a lot of times especially in in social justice and social impact like I get home at the end of the day and I’m like well nothing nothing out you know like nothing runs we’re still at the at square one so how do you think about that or keep yourself motivated I think if one day I could be drinking coconut water and Barbados a three on how that is your goal for god will greet me one day with well done I don’t know if it’s getting I mean not really kidding that would be off yeah you really kind of maybe not not the the rubric image all measure my life but it’s nice to have as it is right you know I’m all right my entire life you know my parents kind of modeled service for me and always kind of they always had a job like a million other things as well and so for me it’s just whether or not I think people are better because I was there and sometimes you can’t measure that right sometimes you know you just got a whole that you planted some seeds that were good and you know and then sometimes you get that text or that email or whatever they confirms it yes like you made an impact whether that’s in a conversation where someone just leaves encouraged or you know if you can help someone that day this tangible or whether or not it’s longer right like with something like the conversations that we’ve built our church or what we’re building with Russell rebellion but yeah it’s that is that sweet spotÂ
like I remember a moment during reveling rest when we were in the sky group therapy session it was amazing as a group therapy session with strangers and it was awesome I just remember like feeling like this is exactly where I’m supposed to be doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing this is it and that’s kind of intangible but you know it when you feel it yeah I think you know particularly our generation right there are these really unhealthy measurements of successor measurements via follow following years lakes even just sort of how we begin to sort of narrates our lives online right and this idea of like I haven’t seen this person posted awhile they must not be doing anything with their lives and maybe they are actually where did they go there live right and I think you can create this unhealthy anxiety even and look the conversation a social impact right in we’ve been in conversations with people who aren’t like very highly visible platforms and voices and sometimes you know you can get to that comparative zone and somewhere to make and I I kind of go back to sort of what was cultivated within my family ethos I always say that like our family business was being a civil servants and community servants and what I’ve seen my grandparents and my parents miles for me is this idea of like an integrated life where there wasn’t any clear sort of delineation between their vocation their understanding of faith and purpose their family life like there was this common thread and as long as that common thread it was maintained and everything they were doing it felt like they were walking and purpose and so for me it feels like if I’m walking in my purpose and I have the ability to impacts spaces where that space is going to be left a little bit more open a little bit more a little bit more of trapped for that next person to come in and feel more valued more recognize more scene then I feel like moment by moment there’s this feeling of like I’m where I am I’m supposed to be rather than sort of this idea of like my life is going to be measured by whether or not rose or valiant raises a million dollars although we are not opposed to it you can say you’re not close to twenty nine forty and but instead this idea of moment by moment season by season and my where I’m supposed to be and is the space that I’m operating and is it getting a little bit better for the next group of people
I love I think I might have a new definition for myself and thank you so much for your time today I really learned a lot much really inspired so I appreciate you coming by saying yes and not only because I got so your season thank you thanks for having us but also thank you for creating this type of space and allowing us to share our story collection thank you all thanks everybody thanks so much to my guest Virginian Meghan to follow their work you can go to rose a rebellion dot com or find them on Instagram and Twitter at resilient we’ll put a link in the show notes the great society team includes me constant state he’s in producer Maria gossip and audio engineer Jake Wallace thank you to everyone it founding media for your support thanks for listening