However, I currently live in a neighborhood of St. Louis that I was directed never to walk through after dark when I was a freshman at Washington University. It is on the upswing though, and there are a lot of other students and families and some of the buildings are being redone very nicely.
As I watch the area around me change, and rents go up, I worry that people are being forced out, but that they have fewer and fewer affordable places to move to.
I feel strongly that everyone deserves a safe, decent place to live. Bike and Build is an opportunity to try to help and encourage others to help and has come at the perfect time in my life. I will graduate in May with a BFA in sculpture and a second major in Spanish, and I have been looking for in a service position since I began planning for after-graduation.
As I researched opportunities, a friend of mine reminded me that she had done Bike and Build a few years ago, so I looked it up. It really clicked with me because affordable housing is such a basic need, I could bike across the country, with people who are as crazy as me for wanting to do it.
I bike to work and class, but I couldn't consider myself a cyclist, so I know one challenge I'll face, but frankly I think I'll have fun beating that hurdle. I'm looking forward to biking with all the people who bike as little as me, as well as those people whose dust I would eat (hopefully I'll improve). I think that overcoming the challenges I haven't imagined will be just as enjoyable.
I'm really excited about going on this trip.