When I was first waking up to how socially unjust and inequitable the world is, I was a snarky asshole.
My dad had just passed away, and I decided that there was more to life than the perfect wave and the perfect beer and the perfect football game to be watched on the perfect wide screen TV.
I moved to San Francisco and I intentionally started doing things that I had never really done before.
I started reading a lot. I started to listening to different perspectives and voices and stories. Perspectives and voices and stories that were unfamiliar to me, that I had not bothered to listen to in the past.
Instead of going to bars and sporting events I started going to lectures and poetry readings and political events.
I was excited and inspired and enthusiastically changing who I was. And I wanted to make sure everyone knew it. I argued and debated and condescended and dismissed and mocked and bullied and satirized.
And most people didn't really like me that much. Unless they happened to agree with everything I thought and said and did.
But I don't go about it that way anymore. I've matured. I'm no longer interested in being right. I'm not interested in alienating and dominating and proving.
I'm more interested in connecting and uplifting and collaborating.