In August 2019, I experienced the worst phone call of my life: my mother calling me to tell me that there had been a horrible mass shooting in my hometown of Dayton, Ohio. That nine lives were lost; out of the nine, two of my first cousins had lost their lives. At the hands of someone else who didn’t value life, putting others at risk too, including his very own sister.
My first thought was how could someone be so stupid and selfish to even take his own sibling’s life? But as time went on, I knew the mission was bigger than me. The mission was for my cousins and the other seven victims that lost their lives and the many others that were wounded too, including a senator of the United States’s daughter that was in the middle of the crossfire. As time went on, all I could hear was a small still voice of both of my cousins saying, “If you don’t fight for us, then who will.”
So this has been my cope and fight ever since.