Working at a church camp this summer taught me so much. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I was in gaining experience and some awesome friendships. One things that I definitely was more informed on after leaving was what integrity really looked like. As I have encountered my first hiccup here at college, I am very thankful that integrity was so stressed at camp.
I was at an event recently for a club I was interested in joining. During this meeting for people who may be interested, I did not have a very good experience. I experienced exclusion, racism, and a few other things that just didn't fit right with me.
We started out the evening with some information on the different projects this group had done previously. This is a group that is focused around something I love and am passionate about, and they had awesome community service projects. The other informational sessions I had attended were great. I had learned about this organization over a year ago and had been excited ever since. After hearing information on the different projects they had done, we split up into groups that were made up of both prospective members and current members. This is where things started to get a little uncomfortable.
The group I was in was very divided. The current members weren't engaging with the prospective members. I was hoping that this would be an inclusive group that could help me be more involved with other students on campus. Unfortunately, this was not the case. It was very divided. I was confused because as you are looking for new members, I cannot understand why you wouldn't be inclusive when they are showing interest.
This led to another very uncomfortable situation. One of the people in my group began talking about how she was very frustrated with her roommates. She began talking with racial slurs and being overall very inappropriate. I was confused because it was not a whisper, but normal talk. I began to wonder how someone could be so comfortable saying these things out loud. Is this something that regularly happened among these members? Was the way she was talking seen as acceptable by other members? The entire situation had me absolutely appalled.
Some people may think that it's not a big deal, or may make excuses for them, but I don't believe that anything about the situation was acceptable. It was not acceptable for this language to be used in the first place, it was not acceptable for none of the members around us to say anything, and it was certainly not acceptable that this was used so freely as if it was okay. I am very well that others hearing this information may choose to join the organization, but I will not.
On thing is for certain, I cannot maintain my integrity and join this organization. Camp taught me what it was like to be inclusive and to have integrity all the time. I could stand by and let this happen, but it certainly does not line up with my beliefs, and there would be no integrity in that. Although I'm very disappointed by the experience, especially since I was so excited to join the organization, I am very thankful for what camp has taught me. I'm also grateful that I was blessed to be raised by people who always taught me stand up for what I believed in and supported me for everything.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world" ~Mahatma Ghandi
