On November 2 I spoke at baruch voices. For me this was a slightly overwhelming task since I have never been good at public speaking. It is usually extremely intimidating to go up knowing so many people are listening to everything you say but the atmosphere on thursday was so different than anything I have experienced before. Everyone was so calm and welcoming and seemed genuinely interested to hear what everyone had to say. One by one people took the stage and once they started talking you could see calm return to their face and authority return to their voice, they owned that story and they knew it was their job to tell it right. The stories were as different as the people telling them, they were sad, inspiring, funny, unexpected. I think this experience was also helpful because everyone makes snap judgements without trying but hearing these stories not even a minute after seeing these people for the first time really goes to show these judgements don’t mean anything and not to hold onto them. This was a wonderful experience and I hope it continues to grow and more people get to experience what I did.
-Abigail Sullivan
