How a walk past the United Nations shaped the path of my life.
Lea Krusemeyer (she/her) // Sports Editor
Sol Yoon (she/her) // Illustrator
At 19, after just moving to Toronto, I decided it was time for a trip. The most obvious choice for a German-born village kid was New York City, so one flight and a bus ride later, I was standing in Times Square taking in the sheer chaos that was NYC. A city that big basically called for dreams of equal size. It was that vacation to the Big Apple that made me dream really, really big for the first time.
One night after walking the city for hours, I strolled past the infamous knotted gun in front of the United Nations headquarters and manifested my biggest dream to date. “One day I will work here, for the United Nations, as a writer,” the memory is so engraved into me, that it feels like it was yesterday. What position I had in mind exactly, I can’t say. All 19-year-old Lea knew was that she wanted to work for the UN, had a deeply odd connection to social justice and that she wanted to be a journalist, so there had to be a job for her somewhere in that building.
From the time I was in second grade, I had this intense passion for justice, refusing to accept any order or fact without questioning it from all angles to make sure it was fair. By the time I was 12, I had figured out I was a lesbian so my passion for justice became more of a fight for my own equality, and because it was personal, I was determined and very eager in my pursuit of it. It didn’t take me long to figure out that in my small town where resources were limited, the internet is the way to go.
That’s when I heard about HRC, the Human Rights Campaign, for the first time. They are America’s biggest LGBTQ+ rights organization and they are the reason I politicized myself. My horizon was being expanded by the videos I saw on their web pages and my passion for justice, which was originally centered around my own life, shifted to a broader scale. I used my pocket money to donate to the Trevor Project, a queer suicide prevention organization, and I began writing about equality. Journals over journals over more journals in my house are testimony to all the things I had to say without an outlet to publicly say them.
My beginnings were humble, with a writing gig that had me cover stories about water bottle shortages or village festivities, but it opened the door to journalism which, for me, was a tool to bring justice to those whose voices went unheard.
Later on, I became active in local politics because, well, that’s just the thing to do when one wants to work for the United Nations eventually, right? I am not sure whether it is the thing to do or not, but I did it anyway. The skills I gained in understanding politics, negotiating and most of all networking, are invaluable skills that I will treasure forever and that once again help me hopefully reach my big dream at the end of the tunnel.
It’s been six years now, and I can confidently say that that dream has never changed. While I am still far away from any position at the UN headquarters, I managed to make my way to Canada, the next-door neighbour, and get a degree in communications. Every step of the way, every decision, no matter how big or small, having that one dream in the back of my mind has shaped my path more than I could have ever possibly realized at the time.
The thing about having one really big goal is that it helps make sense of everything else. Life can feel overwhelming, like an endless series of choices, uncertainties and setbacks. But when you have something to work toward, every small achievement becomes a step closer to that ultimate destination. Every journalism internship, every writing gig, every editor job I have ever taken has been about more than just experience, it has been a piece of the puzzle, another skill learned, another step forward.
When you want something badly enough, you start seeing progress in places you might not have looked otherwise. My last internship, where I fact-checked articles for hours on end, helped me learn how to ensure accuracy, uphold credibility and refine language down to its most effective form, all of it mattered. The same goes for my first real writing job, where I learned to work with editorial feedback, juggled tight deadlines and mastered the art of storytelling. Even now, every article I write, every investigation I fact-check and every editorial decision I make is preparing me for the day I finally get to step through the doors of the UN, in my dream at least.
I don’t know when exactly I’ll reach my goal. I don’t know if I’ll start in a different position before finding my way to the UN or if I’ll have to take a few more unexpected turns along the way. But I do know this: every step I take is leading me there. And one day, I’ll be able to walk through those doors, not just as someone who once dreamed of it but as someone who made it happen.
So, to anyone else who has a dream that feels too big, too distant or too impossible, hold onto it. Let it guide you, let it motivate you and, most importantly, let it remind you that every little thing you do is getting you closer to where you’re meant to be.