I Cried in Front of the Volunteers

Yep, I felt it.

I remember standing there at The Midnight Mission right before we kicked off the day. The build was mapped, the tasks were assigned, the boxes lined up. I had been carrying every detail for weeks. But nothing prepared me for the moment everyone gathered for the welcome circle.

It was a mix. Some faces I knew. Some were the core team members I had brought in along the way. The majority were people I had never met. They found us through LA Works, or a friend mentioned the project, or they followed the signup link without overthinking it. They showed up because something about this work pulled them in.

Seeing that group standing together did something to me. It was community in real time. Not a concept. Not an aspiration. Actual people choosing to give their time and energy to something that started in my notes and sketches.

I opened the circle with a welcome. I started talking, and my voice gave out. I cried in front of everyone. And it wasn’t from exhaustion. It was because their presence meant belief. Belief in me and belief in the work. It drowned out the voices I had been carrying for months—the opinions of people I knew who said the idea didn’t make sense or wouldn’t go anywhere. All of that went quiet in that moment.

What hit me even harder was this: I thought I knew who I would be doing this with. I thought I knew who would stand with me when the day finally came. And I was wrong. That circle showed me something I needed to learn. You will find your people, and you will keep finding them, and they might not be the people you expected. The right people show up, sometimes out of nowhere, and they change the shape of what you’re building.

That moment gave me a different kind of strength. Not the kind you force because you have no choice. A steadier one. The kind that comes from realizing you are not building this alone, and that the people who believe in you might be standing three feet away, even if you just met them that morning.

Then we got to work. Teams in formation. Drills started. Music switched on. The unit shifted piece by piece. But the day didn’t begin with furniture, paint, or lighting. It began with that circle. With the people who showed up. And it changed something in me that I still carry.

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