The Why.

At this point, I’ve provided information on Bike & Build as an organization, the Affordable Housing Crisis, and the route which we will be taking to pedal ourselves from coast to coast.  For some, this information is plenty.  Some others might be more interested in where this seemingly random passion for biking and affordable housing came from. For some reason I've always found people associating me with music and rowing and whatever else I've done on campus, and somehow I've been horrible about displaying my love for disaster relief and biking in any public way.  

When I learned about the possibility of serving as a leader on this trip, I wrote several essay responses in order to apply for this position.  Following is an abbreviated copy of some of my answers to hopefully, explain these “random” passions to those of you wondering if you ever actually knew me at all. (Hint: You totally know me, I’m just less of an open book than I seem).

Biking:
My bike was my main form of transportation for most of my life and was the place where I felt safest in high school.  I decided during my sophomore year of high school that I would bike across the country – I just needed to find another person who wanted to come, and I needed to find a way to turn this into an opportunity to serve.  When I saw an old classmate write about her experience with Bike & Build, I knew I had found something that encompassed all of my values and desires.  I had to do this. 

Building:
Serving others and viewing everyone as neighbors rather than strangers has always been a passion of mine that I haven’t fully understood.  A sense of duty has always just pulled me to help.  Throughout junior high and high school I spent at least a week every summer on service trips in Milwaukee, St. Louis, Atlanta, New Orleans and Honduras.  On my eighteenth birthday, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere my city, Nashville, was underwater.  Eight of my teachers, countless friends, and my grandmother all lost their homes to flood waters over eight feet high.  School was cancelled for a week and I spent every moment of that week working to gut these houses and accommodate my displaced neighbors.  A year later, tornadoes ripped through the city that I had just begun to call home, Birmingham.  I skipped classes for a week to work dig out the remains of homes before rebuilding, ended up getting shingles from working too hard, and almost had to withdraw from some of my courses in order to continue working with the community that I had grown to love so much.  I didn’t know these people before the storms and I had nothing to gain from them, but I felt the need to help in any and every way I could. 

My senior year of high school I decided to study non-profit business so that I could work in disaster relief.  After the Nashville floods shook my world so greatly, and Hurricane Katrina had moved several of my new classmates to Nashville, I had a great passion for providing for those who had been displaced.  In college, this duty to serve displaced individuals and families changed.  I became even more aware that natural disasters are not the only things that displace people from their homes.  There are all sorts of causes to poverty and homelessness.  The focus on affordable housing is the first step toward providing a better life for those who have been displaced.  Affordable housing is building block on which health, education, and growth are fostered.  If a homeless person does not have an address to put on their job applications or their child’s school enrollment, there is no way to move forward.  If a family has to make desperate choices in order to pay their rent, foregoing necessary food or medical needs, there is no way to move forward. 

While my past experience has been in disaster relief efforts, I hope to devote more of my time and efforts toward the affordable housing cause for these reasons.  The thought that thousands of my neighbors are prevented from fully living, working, receiving education, and having access to their medical needs lights the same fire in me that the Nashville floods, Birmingham tornadoes, and Hurricane Katrina lit. 

Not only do I want to work toward the long-term solution to this issue, but I want to be a part of making others more aware that this problem is more prevalent than they can see.  Last summer, I was privileged enough to chaperone the Junior High School service learning trip to SIFAT, or Servants In Faith And Technology in Lineville, AL.  At SIFAT we spent 16 hours in an urban slum simulation, where I watched my seventh grade girls get "sold into prostitution" (simulation) to feed their families, I watched one of the father chaperones react to seeing his daughter as one of these girls, and I watched what desperate people do when they don't have a guaranteed place to sleep or a guaranteed source of food and water.  It seemed cruel that 1 in 7 people on this earth live like this.  And I was angry.  Later in the week I stayed up well into the morning trying to force these eighth grade girls to go to bed. Screaming and laughing and tormenting my sleep-deprived soul, these girls were determined to wear themselves out before the real work even began.  Even after seeing how exhausting life in other cultures can be, even after learning about how much work many people have to put into just one meal or just one cup of pasteurized water, these girls would not tire.  It seemed cruel that we could so easily forget our neighbors we had just started to understand that week.  And I was angry and frustrated.  When we returned to Birmingham, I wanted all of my friends and family to understand this issue and to find a solution.  I feel the same about the issue with affordable housing.  I want to, as cheesy as it sounds, be a part of raising awareness and lighting the fire in more people to work toward a sustainable solution and this summer is my first step toward a lifetime commitment to those affected by this crisis.