today four 9 and 10 year old girls showed me how to dissect a pig. I have never dissected anything in my life. Not even in college bio. but today one little girl showed me a ventricle and another let me hold an eye and another told me about how the tongue is a smooth muscle and another said "HEY IF YOU TOUCH RIGHT HERE YOU CAN FEEL ITS BRAIN" (reader, I touched it). this is just a small thing. I did one new thing today.
but I thought of Elizabeth Warren's remarks this morning as she suspended her campaign: "But I refuse to let disappointment blind me — or you — to what we’ve accomplished. We didn’t reach our goal, but what we have done together — what you have done — has made a lasting difference. It’s not the scale of the difference we wanted to make, but it matters — and the changes will have ripples for years to come."
small things matter. one new thing in a day matters. the small change is I've felt pig brain. the bigger change is that I realized I didn't have to be invited to learn something; I could just show up and do it. the bigger change is that I realized fourth graders can be teachers.
the super tuesday results triggered flashbacks of every time I've been in a room repeating myself at increasing volume until a man says what I said and then people listen, of every time I've run myself into a frenzy during coed sports yelling for a pass while watching some guy try to take on three defenders at once, of being told "you're smarter than I thought you would be when we started this conversation," of people crediting a man for something I planned and organized, of telling a man "no" and then hearing "but...," of being told "follow me women" and being called bitchy, bossy, and mean.
but I refuse to let all those experiences blind me to the changes and accomplishments I see every day. I refuse to sit down or dumb myself down. I refuse to stop shouting for the things I want. and I refuse to lose hope in the fact that the small things we do today will positively affect our communities in the time to come.
Elizabeth Warren ran for president because that's what girls do. These girls dissected pigs because that's what girls do. These girls taught me because that's what girls do. These girls encouraged each other because that's what girls do. These girls worked together because that's what girls do. These girls made a difference -- to me, today -- because that's. what. girls. do.
the difference they're making will ripple. and ripple. and ripple. and ripple. I can't wait to see what these girls do when they're grown up.
