You’re sitting there, comfortably, on your black leather seat, indie alternative music playing on the radio as you drive down a neighborhood street. Suddenly patriotic lights appear in your rearview mirror. Palpitations in your chest rapidly increase as you regretfully pull your car over. Your stomach drops as well as your body to the ground while tragic events play on repeat, combined with the inability to picture the rest of your life once you see fair skin behind the uniform. Lying there, you ask God what your life would have been if you hadn’t reached for your registration so fast.

This scenario is what I fear the most being a black woman in America. My perspective on life will most likely be unique to the mindset of the average 18 year-old so get ready to dive in deep with my thoughts.

To clear the air, I do not believe that all cops are bad cops. My father is a retired police officer and I am proud of the safety he contributed to the world before becoming paralyzed. I have no intention of stating that every single cop is cruel. I do believe that they have a choice to either do what they pledged and provide safety to their communities or do the opposite and be destructive due to poor training or malicious out of spite or prejudice.

I consider myself an activist; I have no difficulty standing up for what I believe is right. However, I feel a tension between defending what is right and the impossible urge to please everyone. While this is America in the year of 2021, I stilI truly believe that peace can be brought upon the world if we as a whole look past differences of race, culture, gender, political belief, sexual orientation or religious belief.

Hope goes a long way in keeping my perspective of life positive. You might be familiar with well-known activists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who's fighting for medicare for all and tuition-free public colleges or former first lady Michelle Obama who is advocating for poverty awareness. There are international activists in the world like Greta Thunberg fighting for environmental climate change correction. Lastly, there is your local activist: me, fighting to bring unity among Copley students and to give those students a voice who may not be brave enough to have one.