Reflection: Bella Trucco
Even before beginning our Project Citizen, mental health and student stress were issues that I was not just passionate, but beyond worried about. As young as age fourteen, I would glance around at my fellow classmates and see dozens of tired faces weeping into their textbooks and crumpling up papers in frustration. Instagram posts, scroll after scroll, of people tossing around the phrase “I’ll kill myself” because of homework assignments, drama, lack of self efficacy- you name it. The lifestyle we attempt to live of subordinance to constant pressure, compiled with the neglect to our psychological well beings as developing young adults, is unsustainable. But, alas, as a kid, I told myself I could do absolutely nothing to change the world around me but wish for said change to somehow materialize.
Project Citizen was a breath of fresh air from everything I’ve thought school projects were supposed to be. Throughout the whole process I was buzzing with energy and elated just by the possibilities of what change just eight kids from a small town could do for what we believe in. I learned the activity, or inactivity, of government in certain issues, the true power in numbers when swaying policymakers, and most of all: how to use active citizenry to stand up for what I believe in. Project Citizen taught me that you do not have to wear a suit and have the word “governor” before your name to spark reform.
Project Citizen was a breath of fresh air from everything I’ve thought school projects were supposed to be. Throughout the whole process I was buzzing with energy and elated just by the possibilities of what change just eight kids from a small town could do for what we believe in. I learned the activity, or inactivity, of government in certain issues, the true power in numbers when swaying policymakers, and most of all: how to use active citizenry to stand up for what I believe in. Project Citizen taught me that you do not have to wear a suit and have the word “governor” before your name to spark reform.