Yes, community is a politician’s buzz word. I actually mean it.
This week marks three years in my forever home! When I first visited the Virginia Peninsula at 12, I knew I would one day call this place home. From the history and sunsets to the people – I just knew. If I had more words to describe how profound that feeling was, I would share them. But all I’ve got truly is that I knew.
My mom shares the story of me standing at Confusion Corner and looking at my parents, saying, “I am gonna live here someday,” as the manifestation of my future. It is an extraordinary privilege to be able to relocate anywhere you can dream of, and that opportunity came to me in 2023. With my first “big girl” job secured, I moved across the country not knowing anyone; I immediately began building community. First with the colleagues I worked with, and then faced with the challenge of meeting friends after graduating from school, I leaned into third spaces to connect people who had never met through a reading group or a trivia night. This quickly developed into my work on Main Street, the start of my own business, and the work I still do alongside nonprofits across the region.
A few months earlier, I distinctly remember talking with my Oma about the kind of home I wanted to build for our future, myself and the community I would pour into. You see, Oma is a pivotal figure in her community; she is everywhere all the time, taking food to those who need it, running errands for church members in the hospital, attending all the club meetings, hosting her own, and still showing up for all the family things from birthdays to sporting events - and with six grandkids, it is a lot. We still often have to remind her to sit down. However, no one is a greater example of the kind of community member and leader I aspire to be; after all, if I could be anyone when I grow up, it would be Oma. Oma taught us all what community is, and what it means to our neighbors, friends, and family. However, she knew, and so did my parents, that community is transient, so we were all raised with the belief that home is always defined by where our heart is. Distance has never been a deterrent, only an opportunity to share a new beloved place with family and friends.
Oma and I discussed community at its essence; I wanted to call somewhere home where it was small enough to always run into someone you know, but large enough where it was 1,000% guaranteed to happen; in other words, you could pick from a few different grocery stores, or take a different route to work. I grew up in a town with 5,000 people and only one traffic light, so I understood small, and I completed my master’s in Glasgow, UK, a large city. While each offers its own kind of community, the Virginia Peninsula – Williamsburg, Newport News, Yorktown, Gloucester – offered the opportunity to be on a first-name basis with your local brewery and coffee shop to become a regular, and the opportunity to meet new people from all different walks of life. The opportunity to grow as an individual and as a community member.
For me, community is as much about “love thy neighbor” as it is about showing up for those you do and don’t know. Communities take care of one another, and in our digital age, our society has increasingly been designed to make us interact only with others with similar backgrounds and ways of life. Our cars keep us isolated. Our cities and towns lack walkability or public transportation. We have very few third spaces, and even fewer where spending money is not a social requirement. And our digital algorithms feed us misinformation, dropping us into our “yes-man” communities and driving partisanship, distrust, and hate between neighbors like nothing we have ever seen. All this is the antithesis of community.
We must see each other face-to-face, show up for each other, share food, engage in discussions, try new things, explore new places. One of my life philosophies is, every once in a while, try to be a tourist in your own hometown – see where this takes you and who you meet. Communities rely on this intersection of individuals it is the very premise of what it means to be an American.
Community is about the power of our collective uniqueness coming together to lean on each other, care for one another, and stand up for what we believe in. Tuesday’s blue wave is an exceptional example of how organizing and community can drive change and prove disbelievers wrong. From the volunteers who knocked doors to the community groups, local NAACP chapters, unions, our paid staffers, and the very candidates that stepped up to run - their collective effort turned out the vote on the Peninsula and across the country. This is the community of our future. The community we will keep building together.
Why I Am Running
Because I have yet to see a community-first approach in Richmond. And there is no one stepping up to fight for EVERY neighbor, every community member’s future - so I am. We can no longer gatekeep and exclude others from the rooms of power, or those who do not represent the New American Majority. Change is being championed and called for by asking young people to run - so it’s time we live the values we speak about. Running is the only way to ensure everyone has a seat at the table. As a leader, I understand and embrace the responsibility of identifying who is not in the room, who is not included or represented in decision-making, and I am asking the people of the 24th District to hold me accountable, give me homework, and put me to work. It is not just a responsibility; it is a duty, and, more simply put, it is the Job I am asking you to entrust to me. Our future is at stake, and this is how we take control and define it. So, in short, I am running for our future - the best version of it we can ALL imagine.
