It's Time to Be Vulnerable

I got placed at the Child Labor Coalition (CLC), and on my first day of my internship I got adrenaline like I’ve never had before when I was interviewed by VOX. The article got published the following day which took me a while to realize my name was on it as well as my hometown. Getting in, Reid Maki the director of Child Labor Advocacy and Coordinator of the CLC only had an hour to introduce himself and what the coalition does. Truthfully, the whole time he was speaking my mind couldn't stop spinning from the fact that in less than thirty minutes I would be answering questions about my childhood home, what I went through as a child working in the fields, and how it has impacted my life. I didn't only have to talk about myself, which made me nervous, but I also had to talk about financial struggles that my family went through that caused me to work in the fields at the age of eleven. I started off by using my elevator speech to introduce myself which made me feel confident, and comfortable to talk about my story. The questions didn’t feel like questions, it felt like a conversation about my story growing up in a rural area like Center, CO and working in the fields.

The CLC protects children from ages eleven to fourteen that work in the fields or in dangerous jobs. While growing up, I always thought that working at such a young age was normal. I’ve learned so much already, I recently learned about The Fairness for Farm Workers Act which made me realize that there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that most agricultural workers have no idea is going on for THEM.

I feel proud of myself, I feel important, and I feel like I belong here. My whole life I’ve been searching for a place that made me feel welcomed and appreciated for what I had gone through as a child working in the lettuce fields, and this is the place that does just that. Not only did I feel welcomed in CLC but I felt like they were expanding my knowledge about different types of ills that are trying to get passed for agricultural workers. I hope to go back to Colorado and do the same for people in my community.