I can still remember when I first started to see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's name. It was on Twitter. As a young person, it is common for me to see my peers turn a blind eye to what's happening in the political realm of the world. But when politics are as accessible as a tweet on Twitter, a lot of people who were previously uninterested are now joining in on the conversation. I think that this is the first thing Ms. Ocasio-Cortez did right. She tweets. She goes live on Instagram. She walks the streets. She says the wrong words sometimes. She seems to be an actual human and not a robot. Her normality appeals to people, and I believe it is something that most politicians need to work on.
Along with other women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, 29-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez helped make history in the 2018 Midterm Elections. Obviously, the fact that AOC went from being a waitress/bartender to the White House as a U.S. House of Representative is mind-blowing. But it is more than that, it showed United States citizens that they had the power to run for office no matter where they are from or what they look like. It showed young people that it is time to take direct action instead of sitting around and complaining. It showed women that they too could hold some of the most powerful positions in the country. And it showed people of color that they could also fight for their rights.
It means a lot to me that AOC recognizes the importance to fight to combat climate change right now. The New Green Deal may not be perfect, but it showed the initiative and willingness to save what we have left of the Earth. In my opinion, climate change is easily the most pressing issue in the United States and all over the world at the moment. And as of now, any politician that I vote for has to be on board for making major changes when it comes to the environment. Maybe only the young people are losing sleep over this right now because we know that it is going to be us and our offspring that will be inhabitants during the biggest environmental crisis in history. Therefore, we need representatives like Ocasio-Cortez in the White House fighting for our future. And she isn't just fighting for our future when it comes to the environment, she is bringing up necessary conversations about student loan debt, access to healthcare, and various other black holes we seem to have in the U.S. government.
Since I was about 15 years old, I have dreamed of being in Congress one day. Each time I share this dream or extensively think on it, it seems to be less and less realistic. But no one knows how it felt to see someone like Alexandria get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives last year. She confirmed that there is no reason I should ever give up on that dream, and it is totally realistic. It is easy to think being a woman of color from a middle-class family would keep me from the right opportunities to carry me to the White House. Alexandria proved us all wrong by running a grassroots campaign and actually turning down PAC money. We don't have to be rich or really anyone of super importance to be fit for a seat that represents other normal U.S. citizens.
In the Netflix documentary, "Knock Down The House," you can see exactly how Ms. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other women that ran in the 2018 Midterm Elections made all of this happen. Through hard work and resilience, AOC is making the change that she wants to see in the world. And I couldn't be more inspired by it. I will definitely be another brown girl on the ballot for a U.S. Congress seat.
