To me, being Native American is about healing wounds and restoring the balance of this world.  Where I grew up, the poverty is so severe, and the anger is so deep, no amount of alcohol is going to drown it.  Growing up Native American was hard, not just because of the poverty and violence and  addictions, but because there seems to be no hope.  Not all reservations are poor like ours, I realize that.  But many are, and even with the success of some casinos, there is still so much to do.  So, here I am, in college, and sometimes I feel like the weight of many generations bearing down on me.  But I need to make it out of that cycle so that I can go back and help put things back in place for a few.   We are all one, and the medicines of life are there, we just need to find our courage to use them and restore balance.  That’s why I’m here.  So, I don’t party a lot.  I don’t get involved in causes about whether mascots should have Indian names or references.  I just work to succeed so I can go back to do something about the pain I saw every day growing up.