Navigating Everyday Life
Choose a social problem that you once saw in shallow ways. Write a letter to a friend, or your past self, to help them see the problem in deeper ways. Meet your reader where they are, or where you were, in that moment by acknowledging their assumptions about the world and their place in it. Use the histories we’ve studied and course tools to give your reader a view that helps them feel oriented and less alone on the path.
Not Some Flaw Within
By Anonymous
Please don’t finish this letter by internalizing any negative feelings of responsibility or despair for our situation. You’ve blamed yourself since the start, and it never helped offer the drive for change.
The Real Culprit
By Anonymous
Looking back, I feel as if all the resentment I harbored against my parents was unwarranted, given the real culprit was someone else. You must be curious by now. Let me show you how we were blind to the crimes conducted against us by this culprit. Let me enlighten you on this issue so you may make better choices in the future.
Behind the Kid Who Got the Zero
By Anonymous
I hope that looking at your friend who got a zero in your math class, instead of believing that he is just a lazy student, now you can understand what is really behind that zero. For me, the zero grade from him is a zero grade for the education and social system… which does not give much support to poor students and families so that they can have a better chance to improve and change their lives.
Not a Game to Win or Lose
By Anonymous
“We are unable to offer you admission…’’. It has been a long journey for you, and the very last thing you ever wanted was seeing that sentence written on most of the college admission letter that I received. As you opened each letter, you kept telling yourself that the next one will be better, until you realized you got rejected from six out of the nine colleges.
In Order to Escape Its Chrysalis, a Butterfly Grows a Hundred Times Bigger
By Anonymous
Your grandma and your dad are, after all, products of this capitalistic society and they raised you with the ideology that promotes competition. Your dad is not good at expressing his feelings and love, but you know he loves you. You know he wants the best for you, and hopes you have a happy life. He believes that competition is the means of success for you. However, because he is not you, he doesn’t know what is best for you.
You Remember Her Yelling
By Anonymous
You would leave early in the morning, at around four in the morning and finish at around noon. You guys would clean around five or six parking lots a day, on the weekends. You would be wearing baggy clothing in order to try and conceal your identity because you didn't want dad to get in trouble. You would tell dad that you could do half the parking lot and he could do the other and you remember him referring to you as his chief in Spanish… As you were heading out of the coffee shop, you remember this lady yelling at dad and telling him to go back to Mexico.
The Toxic Context that Forces You Into the Closet
By Sami Farsoudi
Homophobia is common inside the walls of family homes. I’m sure you know that parents may reject their child after coming out to them. After the child comes out, a parent may kick that child out of their home and the child will be homeless for quite some time. It’s a harsh reality for gay adolescents. Your mother doesn’t have a positive view on the LGBTQ+ community. However, she was born and raised in Iran, a country that enforces such gender-conforming laws followed by rules from the Quran. I’m not justifying her homophobia but, understand that your mother received a different viewpoint on life than you.
Don’t Lose Yourself to This Society
By Uyen Nguyen
Over time, you will see a whole lot of disparities, unfairness, and suffering from pressures of our society that drain you and change who you are. Just don’t lose yourself to this society.
Rigged from the Start
By Anonymous
Remember the beautiful streets of La Quinta and Palm Springs compared to the dilapidated and trash filled ones or your own community? Remember that feeling of not belonging when visiting the northern towns? I'm sure you're aware of all these past emotions and thoughts, but did you ever question why it was this way?
The Battle is Not Lost — Continue the Fight
By Priscilla Cerrillo
I want to remind you of all the women who came before you who fought for your right for a safe abortion, who fought for your right to vote, and who fought for your right to go to school. I want to remind to do the same for the women after you, you must continue the fight, not only in maintain the rights we have acquired, but to continue to fight against the inequalities that remain in our system.
Behind “I’m Fine” and “I’m Great”
By Anonymous
I remember so many days where I’d come back home from school or some kind of sporting event, and after peeling open the front door to the house, would find her sitting statuesque at the kitchen table with the aftermath of tears streaming down her face and this glossy checked out look etched onto her face. It never went completely unnoticed by any of us within the family, and there were of course a handful of different occasions where I’d ask her if she was truly alright and how she was holding up, only to be met with “fine” and “I’m great, how are things with you?”
You Stand on Their Shoulders
By Steph Alfonso
Woman for centuries have dealt with what you have and worse. In some ways, you are able to have experienced such a trade because of them. You stand on the shoulders of women who were courageous enough to pursue something they were taught to believe they could not.
Liberate Yourself from the Need to Beat Everyone
By Annsana Biju
Not everyone lives in the same conditions you do, some people have privileges you do not and others lack privileges you do. It is important that you try to change the way you think about the world from a broader perspective and widen your horizons, if you can do this then it will really open your eyes and liberate yourself from the constant need you have to beat everyone around you.
Connecting Missing Dots
By Vivian Bui
If you can, please look up a zoning map of Los Angeles back in the day and see how much of it has changed today. You will be surprised to see that the red zones are still inhabited by low-income families while the desirable zones hold some of the most expensive housing. An executive order was put in place to prevent any more of these discriminatory acts; however, no compensatory action was made.
Struggle is Closer Than You Think
By Anonymous
Think of it like this: dad makes a whole lot of money per hour while working at his job. Well, there’s these men named Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk who make, in your terms “a gajillion”, much more money than dad per hour for running their businesses. Yet, on the other hand, there are people living on the streets.
I Know This Because I Have Seen
By Marlen Diaz
“If you don't speak English you should go back to Mexico where you are supposed to be!” All of my classmates started to laugh at me, even the ones that came from my same background and also shared my experience. That day I remember going back home thinking if I was doing the right thing.
The Path Beyond Blissful Ignorance
By Anonymous
You were blissfully ignorant, and you could have stayed that way but remember what happened when someone came into your community's bubble and how they were treated. Remember that you could have kept yourself in the bubble and followed along with the other kids and ostracized her, but you didn't because you knew compassion.
Finding Inspiration in an Unfair World
By Angela Ebalo
Life is not fair. While you are growing up protected against the evils that surround the world, there are people who are riddled with fear of impending doom. While there are endless opportunities and resources at your disposal, there are some who can barely put food on their plates.
Not Comfortable in the Bubble
By Samantha Gibson
You never traveled or saw "ghettoized" areas, so how would you have known about these issues and how deeply-rooted the racial problems are in this country (and the world)? I want to give you some insight into how you were raised and your surroundings so you can start to forgive yourself and continue to grow and become a better human being.
Homelessness is a Systemic Failure
By Emily Huang
I have witnessed this shortage when I volunteered as an Informational and Referral Specialist at a call center in Riverside. My responsibility was to connect my clients to the most appropriate human and health resources to solve their problems. The clients that mostly called in were homeless people looking for programs for affordable housing, food stamps, or utility assistance programs. However, most of these programs have very long waiting lists or have requirements. For example, affordable housing programs have thousands of people on the waiting list. It might take months or years for them to get off the waiting list. The lack of support and services can truly make it hard for a person to escape poverty and still not lose hope.
The Good Parts Are Where We Find Hope
By Anonymous
Sometimes I find myself wishing that I was still you. Blissfully naive and oblivious to hideous ways that the country operated. That racism could be easily solved with a simple sorry and that people just had to work on being kind and respectful towards one another. Instead that is not enough as racism in this nation is more complex than that.
Medicine Does Not Heal Social Maladies
By Hannah Jung
You have always thought illness and sickness comes from something. There had to be a reasonable source. An individual addicted to smoking would have a higher chance of being diagnosed with lung cancer, and if one’s mother or grandmother had breast cancer, those cancer genes would also be in their system. To you, this seemed fair and this seemed right. Choosing to live an unhealthy lifestyle would bring consequences. Things look a bit different and you will soon realize there’s so much more to everything.
Something Not Yet Noticed
By Anonymous
Something I came to notice throughout the years was the context that surrounded policies such as affirmative action… I remember you looked at these types of policies with spite. It felt like the tables were being turned on you, when you had nothing to do with the past. It wasn’t fair. And I understand that feeling, but maybe there’s something you weren’t noticing just yet.
An Eroded Sense of Belonging
By Junyue Liao
In the prevailing conditions resulting from COVID-19, you will struggle to access health services due to language barriers. When you went for your test to be allowed to travel, there was palpable hostility in the waiting room. A man sitting close to you even referred to COVID-19 as the Chinese Virus in your presence while the rest of the people snickered.
Islamophobia is Real
By Dina Mousavi
She signaled at them to come out of the car so that we could peacefully talk with them, but the young man rolled down his window and yelled out a cruel and uncalled-for remark to spark a reaction from us. His exact words, “Shut up, terrorist,” shouted directly to my grandma.
Your Heart is Getting Colder
By Loc Nguyen
As you got older, you started to discover that your heart is getting colder. The indifferent attitude toward the suffering of others will kill your feelings one day. Please, spend a few minutes reading about racism and you will realize your peaceful life is valuable.
A Loving Perspective
By Steven Quammouh
I wish this letter could reach you at this point in our life for it would give you a perspective that you failed to see at your age. Not perceiving this viewpoint is not something I entirely put the blame on you for. Looking back at it now being almost twenty-one years old, I can see that your boisterous criticism of social welfare programs including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) were largely misguided by your experiences up to that point in life.
Voting Isn’t Marriage
By Etienne Lafayette Rimmele
Don’t get so lost in picking apart the presidential candidates when it comes to voting because no one’s ever gonna come along advocating exactly what we think in exactly the way that we want unless we foolishly decide to run for president, but that’s okay. Here’s a great quote/analogy I heard the other day: “Voting isn’t marriage, it’s public transportation. You’re not waiting for ‘the one’ who’s absolutely perfect. You’re getting the bus, and if there isn’t one to your destination you don’t not travel. You take the one going closest.”
A More Decent Human Being
By Natalia Ibarra Mendoza
My family has been seen as one of those families that broke the law to be here my mom was even once arrested because ICE believed that my parents’ marriage was fake and that it was all just because my mom and my stepdad got married and we got our residencies to live in the U.S. My mom was held in a cell for around 72 hours, I was only 6 years old and to this day I can still remember that day with so much clarity.
What I am Going to do With my Life
By Giuliana Rodriguez
There was a moment in my senior year of high school where I distinctly remember having a small panic attack about college. I was in my mom’s apartment alone, sitting on the edge of my bed, doing some finishing touches on my UC application, and I remember thinking, “I’m not going to get in.”
Not Compromising in a Compromised Education System
By William Rodriguez
You might feel like community college is embarrassing or lower quality than your friends attending liberal arts colleges. You might also feel like you are alone since many of your peers are attending four year colleges. I want you to know while some of your assumptions about community college and yourself while valid, are not entirely true.
The Choice is Yours
By David Everly
As a fellow member of our community, I know that you will undoubtedly, at some point in your progress, need to navigate the complexities of our current healthcare system. Over the course of the time that you navigate this system, especially as a man in your current situation, you will face many contradictions. The medical community and system, as a whole, is very skilled at putting patients into categories. It was not until as recent as the 2010’s, however, that the medical community began to make room for the category of intersex and transgender patients.
The Storm Inside is Hope
By Nolan Golden
Being gay seems like a death sentence, but in fact, will be key to your liberation. Your experiences earlier in life did not make you gay, for no man could ever simultaneously cause you harm while also providing you with such a gift as the one you carry. Second, you are of more than one energy. Your body is comprised in a masculine form, yet your demeanor exudes that of femininity.