*This dream is a post-project artifact, courtesy of Emily Steinberger.
“I want to be comfortable. I want to be happy, surround myself with people that I love, do work that I love, not overwork myself which is something I struggle with a lot. I love doing stuff for other people and sometimes I don’t know that boundary. So finding a good balance in that and just being able to be happy and content with myself and help other people be comfortable with themselves as well.
I’m a big person on intersectionality. I didn’t know what that word meant for a while. … Intersectionality is something very important to me. Now that I know what the word is, I try and be aware of it as I can.
I feel like a lot of people don’t understand that [disability] encompasses a lot of things cause ADHD and anxiety slash depression – which shouldn’t be grouped together, but they are often together are technically disabilities.
And I feel like people don’t acknowledge that enough and they just like, “Oh, you have mental health issues, you know, whatever you medicate yourself.” But it’s like, that’s a literal disability, like that prevents me from getting out of bed in the morning. It prevents me from doing a lot of things.
I am bisexual. … There’s a lot of bi erasure going on in both the heterosexual and queer community because one minute you say that you’re a woman or bisexual or a woman presenting and you’re with someone who is male presenting, it looks like a straight relationship. Or you’re with another woman presenting person, it looks like a queer relationship. But it’s just like, you can’t assume that, you know. So that gets really hard.
That kind of goes back into the whole safety comfort thing, advocacy thing, because those are some of the minority groups that I’m involved in and those are places that I can advocate for. I obviously can’t advocate for people of color, but like I’ll push their voices as high as I can from where I am, trying not to step over them or talk over them.
“Having those moments where I can see that I’ve impacted somebody to the point where they’re really thankful is really rewarding for me so that I can see them be happy.”
A lot of my American Dream derives from who I am as a person and what I can do as a person, and advocating for other people in the queer community and advocating for other people in the ADHD community, the anxiety community, mental health, … people who might be midsized or larger. Like I would love to advocate for them as well and create spaces that they feel safe in.
I know it sounds really cliche, but having those moments where I can see that I’ve impacted somebody to the point where they’re really thankful is really rewarding for me so that I can see them be happy.
And it’s not even about them thanking me personally or like winning awards or whatever … it’s not so much about the recognition as it is seeing somebody else succeed and knowing that I helped them do that, and that they are happy and that I spread some happiness to them. That’s really what I like. And I know it sounds really corny and cliche, but it’s true.”