Poem on Access by Enolia Soetan

What is access?

Access is being able to walk into a room

In a state you've never been in

With people you've never met

And still being able to see parts of yourself

In every person you interact with

Access  is being able to experience things you never have before

Access is being welcomed into decisions

About where your student fee money goes

About campus accessibility 

About tuition rate determinations 

It's getting answers to what was previously unknown

Access is not symbolic

It is more than being tokenized

It's walking into rooms where everybody can be recognized

Movement without fear of our identities being weaponized

Movements that commit to the realities we want realized

Beyond just a moment

Access is ongoing

Access keeps us true to all our goals of being unified 

Access provides spaces for anybody to organize

It's getting the piece of the pie that you need

Not fighting for crumbs and giving up on dreams

Resource distribution that touches everybody's hands

Knowledge distribution so that everybody can understand 

Needs that are met on principle, without having to be framed as demands

Access is organizations that bring people together 

Regardless of state, circumstance, or path 

Amplifying unique experiences 

Giving every individual's story a chance

Watch what happens with the power we create

When we make space for ourselves at the tables

When we fix together our own plates

Watch what happens with our voices

That even as they may shake, they rise 

Watch what happens with our hands

The calluses on our palms all aligned--

Watch as we use our hands to build

What once existed only in our minds

Watch all of the opportunities that we create 

When it's the barriers-- not the dreams that we eradicate 

But don't just watch all of this happen

Don't just see it with your eyes

Bring yourself into the fold

Help yourself to the power you can hold

Because all of this is for you too

These are things we are all able to do

Life-changing and awe-inspiring

With the ability to pull people out from the depths of an abyss 

When we don't just have to dream about it

And we can be about it

That's what access is 

Enolia Soetan is working on her Bachelor of ScienceStudent at Dickinson State University in North Dakota. She is currently in her senior year of undergraduate studies, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science.