My Dream is to be an active citizen/make my home better

This Dream was shared by Katie Taylor, a 22 year old living in Philadelphia.

When I graduated from high school, my dream was to be an actress and live in “the city.”  After eighteen years in suburbia I had a totally idealistic and fantastic picture in my head of what this urban life would look like and feel like.  After high school, I moved to Philadelphia to attend Temple University and fell totally in love ahem, not with Temple, or acting but with Philadelphia.

It’s hard for me to articulate the kind of passion that has grown in me for my adopted hometown, and for the people in it.  I love how dirty Philly is, how freakin LOUD philadelphians are about everything, and the accent they say things in, I love the art and the music that my friends are making here, I love that I can take my dog to work where I bartend and no one thinks twice about it,  I love that Philly is called “the city that loves you back” because in my experience it’s totally true. This is a city of community, where your neighbors will actually care if they don’t see you sitting on your stoop for a couple of days (in the summer) and will bring you homemade Pho (in the winter).  I know there are lots of places in the world that are like this, but this is my place and it’s so special to me.

My dream is to love Philadelphia back, to be an active citizen of my community and effect positive change here.  We shouldn’t have to chose between closing down our free libraries (eleven of which we did close last year) and cutting 30% of funding for the only domestic abuse shelter in our city (we shouldn’t have only one domestic abuse shelter).  We shouldn’t have to deal with racism or corruption in our police force.  We need a more effective way of dealing with the city’s stray and abandoned animal population, and this plan needs to include funding for no-kill shelters.  Because of the wonderful sense of community we have in Philadelphia, I know that we have the capability to create these changes for ourselves.

I want being this kind of active citizen to be a central part of my life, something that I build on and continue.  I want to stay in this place long enough to enjoy the results of getting involved.