Resist Today, Persist Tomorrow

Aurea Bolanos Perea
M.A. Candidate, Chico State Department of Political Science
President, Council of Graduate Students

Area Bolanos Perea identifies herself as an immigrant, a feminist, and a scholar—but she is so much more. Ms. Bolanos Perea challenges the audience to think about the identities and the words that have been used to describe them, and to realize deeply, fundamentally, that each of us are more, and we must harness that sense of true self to build the life we want to live.

In recognizing the expectations that others have of us, it could be easy to live someone else’s plan or expectation for our own lives. But Ms. Bolanos Perea urges us to resist the temptation to follow those expectations, instead taking the more difficult path of building paradigms for ourselves. Her enthusiasm for the genuine self is the clarion call that she conveys: persist to fight each day for own lives, dream for our own futures, and actualize our true selves.

Recorded: February 15, 2019