Never doubt the value of small actions [Voices of Democracy series]

When I decided to text-bank for the first time, I assumed the experience would make me feel irrelevant and useless. Text-banking involves volunteering to send texts in favor of a candidate, in this case, a candidate for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. My candidate would probably lose (he was very behind in the polls). Even if by some miracle he did win, I felt sure I would leave the experience feeling like I hadn’t contributed. To be clear, I really do care about the candidate and the cause – I just felt so small, even in the context of the arena of local politics. Given this rainy outlook on the idea, why did I decide to text-bank in the first place?

Paradoxically, I think the main motivation was my own frustration at feeling useless during the election season. And although I didn’t think text-banking would be the cure to my frustration, at that point, I just wanted to do anything to help soothe my election nerves. I thought that text-banking would keep my mind busy and give me at least some sense of purpose in these confusing times.

Text-banking also just seemed like the next “logical” step. “You’re a teen. You care about civic engagement? You should text-bank!” And so, driven by some poorly defined frustration and a sense of obligation, I signed up.

In some ways, the experience was just as I imagined – it was definitely busy work, and it wasn’t exactly exhilarating. But what I didn’t expect was the sense of satisfaction that would come from it – instead of feeling useless or irrelevant like I expected I would, I left each session with a sense of accomplishment.

In an upset, my candidate ended up winning – news that was met with much celebration in my household. I won’t say I felt that I individually was responsible for that result, but instead, I was inspired by the sense of empowerment that came from being part of something greater than myself. I learned that even small actions are valuable and worthwhile, and I would wholeheartedly recommend this experience to any teen feeling useless in the face of global, state, or local politics.

Samantha McLoughlin is a 2020 Youth Fellow with The Civics Center and is a junior at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, California. The Civics Center’s “Voices of Democracy” blog series celebrates and highlights the voices that matter to us most: those of young people working to improve civic engagement and participation in our democracy.