On Monday, Feb. 18, Julia Garcia, nationally accredited speaker, author and founder of truality.org, visited the Puget Sound Fieldhouse to share her time with student athletes and Greek Life. Julia has made a business out of traveling around the world and speaking at different schools and college campuses to spread the word about the TRU movement she created.
TRU is an acronym for The Real U, as well as a slogan that expresses being honest and open all the time, even when talking about issues that it hurts to be vulnerable about. The movement is about bringing truth to a reality—Truality.
Truality is a defined as “a TRU Movement that empowers thousands of students from all walks of life to be TRU. Truality instills positive change both on and off campuses by identifying issues regarding self, social and cultural awareness in a way students cannot only understand, but most importantly, relate.”
In an online interview describing the founding of the TRU movement, Garcia said that she created Truality because she “wanted to bring something tangible into the world that people could believe in. Something that was raw and it was real” and could be related to; something that she believes is true. She said it was influenced by “the pain that I’ve seen people go through, either on a day-to-day basis or really dramatic things that happen to people.”
When Garcia came to Puget Sound, she extended the same opportunity for the Loggers in attendance to be TRU and open with her about matters of high importance on college campuses that are not talked about enough. Garcia’s college talks center around sex, drugs, alcohol and all the things that students get entangled in after class is dismissed.
Her presentation discussed the reality of unrestricted partying through the artful use of photographs, slides and spoken word in order to bring her real life experiences to the foreground of the conversation. She also focused heavily on the impact that losing loved ones can have on a student, and expressed similar pains that she has experienced along the way.
During the presentation no topic was off limits. Major issues such as drugs, alcohol, sexual identity, sexual assault, race and privilege were all brought up through stories and narration to bring awareness to subjects that are not high on the education list, even at the college level.
Regardless of all the life circumstances that arise throughout college, there is always hope in perseverance and in knowing that there are people on the same campus who care because they have gone through the same experiences. Most importantly, students can know that they have a voice that someone is willing to listen to.
Garcia summarized her plans for Truality, saying, “I hope that Truality and everything that I do with my life can bring hope to someone who maybe feels hopeless right now … I want to give people a voice or an opportunity to see things in a way that maybe they never would have before.”
Even when it seems like no one else knows what it’s like to be an addict, or a victim or an orphan, the TRUth is that there are other people out there who are going through some of the same struggles. There is no need to carry painful burdens alone; by just being open and honest, help can be found through sharing one personal story.
Silence is a vessel of oppression, hurt and shame; when people don’t feel comfortable talking about a subject, it only festers beneath the surface. Fortunately, there are people like Garcia willing to do the talking. After all, the TRUth will set you free.