After a 6 hour flight from San Francisco to New York, two train rides, and 45 minutes in a van, my fellow Leadership Academy participants and I arrived to our retreat center in West Cornwall, CT. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect from both the location and most especially, the participants. Prior to the Academy, I had no idea West Cornwall even existed, but now, am SO thrilled our first retreat took place here-- I'll explain later. But, what about the other participants? I read their bios prior to our first retreat and was honored to be part of a "Superstar" team, but to what extent would I be able to relate to them?

Some highlights: In the morning, some of us recognized the incongruence between our belief system and our strategies in addressing our respective social issues of interest. We dug deeper in the afternoon as we looked at ourselves and thought about how aligned we are with our respective progressive organizations. In the past, I've attended conferences and similar leadership capacity building programs where a handful of participants, for some reason, feel the need to share the laundry list of activities and positions they've held (You're here, you must have done something great. I'm sure I can read about it in your bio). But again, my fellow Leadership Academy participants have confirmed one of my long-held beliefs: the tallest trees have the longest roots, both literally and metaphorically.

Yes, being a young leader in the progressive movement isn't easy. Yes, we make mistakes (lots of them), and we'll probably make more in the future. Yes, we're passionate about our current beliefs and strategies, but we also realize that we might not operate from the same framework tomorrow. Yes, we are human and have relationships and interests beyond our progressive roles, but we're not always the best at nurturing those relationships and aspects of our identities that we, in our minds and hearts, believe to be a significant part of our lives.

No, again, we are not, nor do we claim to be, the "perfect" young leaders of the progressive movement who are, at times, put in the spotlight/on a pedestal. In contrast, we are humbled by our flaws and, from my observations, have undergone different challenges that have led us to our current commitment to social change.

As we drew and shared 3 aspects of our lives that led us to YP4 and the larger progressive movement, I was amazed by the level of trust and honesty our Leadership Academy familia had built in a little over a day (I'm sure West Cornwall and being away from the world's ruckus had something to do with it).

As we explored our identities and journey to the progressive movement, I realized our narratives were messy, nonlinear, dynamic, sometimes even painful and lonely. For many of us, we didn't anticipate having taken on the roles and accomplished what we have thus far in our lives because the odds were against us. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the trials of my life, and more importantly, the opportunity to learn, grow, and contribute to creating a more just world as a result of these experiences.