by Samantha, Amplify Community Editor 

 Sunday night, Lt. Dan Choi was our closing speaker at this year’s Urban Retreat in D.C. Some of the activists knew Dan’s story and some did not, but after he spoke there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Lt. Choi, while being  an incontrovertible asset to our military, is also one heck of a funny, passionate, caring, charismatic, extraordinary, regular guy. But he is a “regular guy” in the sense that  we all hope to be regular. He is himself.

One activist described his words as “feeding her soul,” but when it really comes down to it, when you really break it down, what makes his words so deeply inspirational is not anything special about him, but that they reach and feed the parts of us that make us extraordinary- that make us somebody. They do not make us anything more than we already are. And what a gift it can be to discover and embrace and love our true selves.

As activists, our work is rewarding, but we do not do it for ourselves. After Dan’s speech, we had a question/answer/comment session, and one question he was asked was: “If you were on an elevator with a young gay person who you knew wasn’t out yet, what would you say to them?” His answer was that people come out when they have someone to come out for. They tell their truth when they know that there is someone who needs  to hear it. And that is one of the biggest things we can do to help those who are struggling with coming out- make them understand that there’s someone else who needs to hear their voice. We all need to remember the reason or the person or the event that got us started, and if we hold onto that, we can’t go wrong.

The buzz of emotions through the room that night was amazing. Some people cried, everyone was moved; everyone was inspired. Like Nickie said, “ I’ve never seen so many exhausted people so excited.” After the Q&A, we did a  thank you/shout-out/ “favorite memory of the retreat” share, and that was really cool too not just for the personal thank yous, but because of all of the people who said, “I wish I could have met all of you individually, but you’re all family, and I love you all.” I loved that so many people felt that way.

To all of my AFY/UR family: “You are awesome!!” 
 
~ Samantha
Community Editor