Tapia Conference 2021: On What It Means To Be A Human

Tapia Conference 2021: On What It Means To Be A Human

I’m fortunate to have been selected as a Tapia scholar to attend the Tapia Conference. I will be honest that I did not know of the conference before. I came across the conference randomly, fount out that it was offering scholarships, its topic is about diversity, and there is a career fair. That’s more than I can ask for, so I signed up. And the conference has been a full blast. It reminds me of what it means to be a human.

Tapia Conference is my first time

• seeing an ASL interpreter on Zoom
• hearing people describing their physical traits while introducing themselves
• witnessing so many diverse set of lived experiences
• listening to professors’ sides on their mental health illnesses
• attending a virtual conference
• connecting with so many wonderful individuals, some of which I hope to build a long term relationship/ mentorship with
• skipping classes for conferences
• having a live captioner on Zoom (never knew of such a job before)

I connect with a software engineer who declined a famous brand name FAANG against his Asian parents’ expectation to work at a smaller company so that he can learn more. I connect with a software engineer who got accepted into Google Cloud Residency at the cost of his mental health. I connect with many professors who strive to support students while navigating their own mental/ physical health journey. I never consider how offensive the sign “Please refrain from using the elevator. Take the stairs” is for people of different physical ability.

I was called out because of my non-inclusive language, which is a wonderful learning experience, and I’m so glad people did call me out on that. I was very hesitant when I hit that message because I felt like something about the message was not right, so I’m glad people provided me with that learning opportunity. This is why I’m here at the conference.

I stay engaged and a professor recommends me to reach out to a professor in my university to learn more. I feel so honored because I always assume most people do not know Bucknell because it is a small liberal arts school. That leads me to attend another conference on assistive technology, so I can’t wait to share what I will be learning there.

It’s just a wonderful place to find out that we all have our own lived experiences and some environments are better at providing support for different people’s needs than others. When I enter Bucknell and realize some of the places are not designed for people like me in mind (I can only see half of my nose and above in my dorm’s bathroom mirrors), I already feel so unwelcome. Imagine what it’s like to be living all those experiences that I see. So the bullet points are

• Everyone is going through something. You cannot understand what it is like to live another person life, but you can always support them and be a kind-hearted human being.
• Everything people do has nothing to do with you. Never take anything personally.
• It is tiring to always be the one to advocate for changes. Take time to rest and care for yourself.
• Surround yourself in a supportive community so that once something happens, you have a good net to fall on and you can expect people there to lift you up.
• There are decent people who care. Find the ones who do and treasure them. Let them know how grateful you are for their presence.