My OLASTEO Moment

I had the privilege to attend two in-person OLASTEO Excursions in 2018 and 2019. Both trips were impactful and completely changed my life. However, out of the many OLASTEO moments I experienced during my travels, one that has stuck to me until this day was a moment I experienced during my first visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This museum is a ten-story building with thousands of pictures, stories, and artifacts about African American history. My first OLASTEO moment occurred when I came across a massive rock that enslaved people used to stand on to be sold. A short story was written next to this rock about a woman's baby being sold off to enslavement. As I read, I imagined the poor woman standing with her baby in her arms, holding him for the last time before he was snatched away from her. I could imagine her screaming and crying helplessly as her baby was sold, and she was unable to do anything about it. Seeing this rock and reading this story sent chills down my spine and brought tears to my eyes. I was even more saddened when I realized that at some point in history, this was a reality that most African-Americans had to face. I could only imagine what it must have been like to be in this situation, to be forced to watch the person you love most be taken from you, never to be seen again. In that exact moment, I reflected and thought that although slavery was abolished, there are still many struggles that African-Americans face today, similar to what this woman went through hundreds of years ago. This OLASTEO moment changed something inside of me. It made me advocate for African-Americans and stand up for them whenever I come across an injustice. It made me promote social change in efforts to prevent situations like this from ever happening again. The Summer Washington D.C. Excursion transformed me forever, and is one of the most life-changing experiences that anyone could and should have.