Tomorrow’s World. Don’t take rejection letters to heart.

​At age 8, witnessing the bias colonial narratives used to teach that some races were superior to others, I led my first protest against imperial oppression, with a classroom walkout.
 
At age 9, inspired by the evil fighting badass Ewoks from Star Wars’ Return of the Jedi, using my dad’s garage tools, I attempted to make a flying bike, in which children like me, and Ewoks, could take on the dark forces of evil empires, and the far-right neo-Nazis skin heads, that hanged out near our school playgrounds.
 
At age 10, I invented a series of futuristic style burglar alarms (and other inventions) and submitted them, one after the other, to BBC’s Tomorrow’s World. A British TV show showcasing cutting edge new inventions…
 
In response to the latter- I received this rejection letter. But thanks to the stories of my freedom fighter grandparents, the wisdom of my refugee immigrant parents, the songs of Bob Marley, and other social justice s/heroes, I’m thankful I was encouraged to still think big, to go complex on my designs, and to pursue the path of big vision systems change thinking, in collaboration with others. In fact, tackling unjust systems, building a better and fairer world, with others - is my community. My Ewoks!
 
Walking home from school with my own 8-year-old daughter, from the ground she picks up a fallen tree branch holding a few leaves. She holds it, looks at me and tells me this is only flag she wants to swear her allegiance to. The flag of nature, she calls it. She wants to change the way the world works. She wants to make a difference. She’s thinking big. So of course, I’m like, you go girl!
 
Never let a passive aggressive rejection letter, or system of suppression, tell you otherwise. Let’s follow the hearts and instincts of our children and the inhibited wonderous change-the-world child that resides in all of us. Let create a world where we can become the story of a world, we wish to see. Think big. Think bold. Now, and for generations to come.