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Living in Community

 Do you know what community looks like? Many young New York transplants might say no. The city is famous for moving ridiculously fast and being a place where in an apartment of many units you might never learn your neighbor’s names. Moving to New York at 23, I had resolved to defy those stereotypes and bring a sense of small town community to my little corner of the Big Apple. But after about 6 weeks I found that I had had zero success in finding any sense of community in the space around me. Then quarantine hit.


For the few months that I was back at home with my family, I got a pretty positive picture of what community looks like. One night I was washing dishes and it dawned on me that I had done all the dishes almost every night while my sister had yet to even rinse her own water bottle. But on the other hand, I couldn’t recall having done laundry since I arrived. That was a chore she’d taken upon herself each week without any instruction. Each of us was contributing differently, but we were both accomplishing vital tasks in order to keep our household running. 


When I stop to think about it, so much of my life has been spent believing that my contribution to society needs to look a certain way to be valid. As someone pursuing a career in the arts, it’s been especially easy to feel like my passion is frivolous; after all our industry was the first to be deemed non-essential as shutdowns began. But the truth is not everyone is good at doing the dishes, and thank God not everyone needs to be. I can’t imagine a world in which everyone is a doctor or an accountant. What would we do without people who could build solid houses? Who would have a job if everyone could balance every budget? 


True community is about people coming together to contribute in the most effective way they can. It’s also about understanding that different people will bring different strengths to the table. Community is knowing that someone needs to tackle waste disposal, someone needs to be able to cure the sick, and someone needs to organize operations - and knowing that none of these are more important than the other. Every task and specialization is vital to a high functioning community. If you want proof, just think back to our quality of life in April. We were surviving, but were we thriving? The answer is a most definitive and unfortunate no. But even as we continue to move through the world under this new set of circumstances and guidelines, there is room to contribute. 


As an artist there is so much I can do to find creative solutions to different questions in people’s lives. And my creativity and innovation could be the difference between success and failure for a campaign to provide relief to a certain demographic or an effort to bring awareness to a certain crisis at hand. But that can only happen if I take responsibility for being an active part of my community. We are all vital in our own way. Now is the time to take a look at how you can stand up and contribute to bettering the lives of those around you. Stop believing the lie that you are too insignificant or that your calling is too superficial to advance your community, and start getting excited about looking for ways to be part of something bigger than yourself!
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