I love our town house. I love walking up the big granite steps, looking up the beautifully placed brick. The prowess of our town house is a reminder that we take our civic life seriously in Peterborough.

As I sat in my car on the seventh of this month, looking at the building as I had countless times before, the building had a much more intimidating feeling than it ever had. After doing a final prayer and regaining my gumption, I exited the car. Walked into the town house, pulled out my two dollar bill and pen; and asked Linda our Town Clerk for the form to sign up to be on the ballot for the nomination to be the Representative in the State House for Hillsborough County’s 33rd district. 

Born in Keene in 2003, I grew up raised by my Mother, Rebecca Ann Wheeler. She had very little but made out of it what she could. She was a chef taught by a Japanese master chef named Hiroshi Hayashi. Who had a restaurant in Henniker called Latacarta. One of my earliest sub memories are the smells of his kitchen, his massive white dog, and my Mother’s admiration for him. After getting pregnant with my sister my Mother had the choice to continue on with Hiroshi for another few years as I stayed with his wife to learn Japanese, and my newly born sister Alohi would stay with her father. A few years of hard work resulting in what could be a massive payoff. She decided in the end to put the knife down and raise the two of us as best she could. With her fantastic cooking skills and unwavering perseverance up against some rocky seas she showed the warrior spirit of a Mother. We moved around a lot. All up and down New Hampshire from Jaffrey, to Nelson, Henniker, Lincoln, and many more. To Seattle for a year and a half. Maine for a few months. We moved around almost every few months for a time. Ultimately landing in Peterborough around three quarters through my second grade year. Where I entered and stayed in the coeval school district. We hopped around, but always in Peterborough. In my life we’ve live in three out of the four low income apartments in town. A bunch of different odd ball apartments elsewhere throughout town. Landing where we have been since 2017 in West Peterborough. This house is the longest we have been at any house in my life.

It was a crazy childhood but one filled with joy. Good food. Laughter. Love, and family that we found along the way. As exists in all families in poverty there is an undercurrent of pain. No child should have to look into their parents eyes to see the veiled expression of love masking the deep pain of being unable to provide, and knowing that you will still have to do your best to do so. No child should have to see their parent go without eating so that they may have a meal that night. 

From my reality as a child I was shown so clearly that we are defined by how we treat those in need. The children, the elderly, the stranger. Do we as a society want to continue to turn a blind eye to the under current of pain in our world? Or do we want to wake up to a world which we can be proud of? One where those on the edges of society aren’t cast out and treated as lesser.

At fifteen years old I was a rambunctious kid who had a ton of energy to make change but no avenue to put it towards. Heather Stockwell, who I have known my whole life, saw that energy in me and asked me out for a coffee. I didn’t think much of it at the time but looking back that was the catalyst moment. From there we both started working together. Running around the State with our clipboards, asking people to sign petitions for a healthcare system that actually works via a single payer system. Gathering stories from people about the horror they have had to face trying to get themselves or their loved ones the care that they need from the system. Organizing rallies and other events. Pressing our elected officials and Presidential candidates with tough questions. We did everything we could, everywhere we could. Building back community where it wained.

That work brought me to the legislature to testify on a variety of different bills related to improving the healthcare system, our education system, the justice system and more. Being up in the Capitol building testifying on the actual bills, and talking to the actual Representatives face-to-face got me thinking not only could I do this job, but I have a perspective as a working class person that isn’t often represented in that building; I started thinking I should do this.

Working people aren’t called by the party recruiters to run. They aren’t given the green light by the green given to others by the business interests and the wealthy who can afford to give. Working people often don’t even pay attention because they are so frequently reminded that this is a role for the elite of society. 

If we are going to change that, people need to be willing to put the hard work into blazing a path for others to follow. We have a State where property taxes are rising exponentially. Where our public education system buckles in the property poor towns while the rich towns flourish. Where the environment is poisoned by international businesses that have no care for the pain they’re inflicting on our land and our people. 

Who in the State House is speaking to the people who will lose their house because they can no longer afford it?

The children who want to achieve their ambitions but are undermined by the lack of opportunity to do so in school? 

Or the people being poisoned by Saint Gobain and it’s negligence to our water system?

This isn’t to say nobody is. There are people in the State House working to address these very issues and they deserve far more thanks than they get. People such as Marjorie Smith, Wendy Thomas, Linda Gathright, the late Renny Cushing and so many others who go to the State House not for glory - but to serve. It is those people who have blazed the path to open the doors for a kid with a dream to run for office. 

I believe our State will get through these challenges as we have others in the past. Through collaboration and a spirit of determination that stays with us even if the darkest hour is to come. I want to be apart of the efforts in the State House to make our State one which lasts long after I am gone. I want to serve the interests of the people whose voice can’t always be found in a committee room. 

The renters, the servers, the manufacturers, the union members; working people. I want to serve them because I am them, and I want to see us in the State House - making this a State which works for all, and not just the elite business interests.