It’s not your time. I just want you to gain a little bit more experience. Wait your turn. Wait your turn. Wait your turn. Hello. My name is Mary Pet Hector, and if you couldn’t tell by the photo, I’m a hellraiser. At the age of 19, I became the youngest woman in person of color in the state of Georgia to ever run for political office. And growing up, my grandmother would say, you don’t need permission to be great. I had to learn at an early age that if people were uncomfortable by my presence, if they didn’t want me to be there, if they didn’t want to make space for me, then I had to make space for myself. And so today, I say to everyone in this room, to no necesito permiso para hacer espacio. You don’t need permission to make space. I can remember it like it was yesterday. Me standing side by side with my Svillman sisters on campus as we heard the words, Donald J. Trump, president of the United States of America. A few cheered, but many of us cried. And I can remember just being so angry, mad about the race relations in our country, pissed, about at the stroke of a man’s ink pen laid my reproductive rights and confused that so many of my peers believed that by protesting their vote, it was the only way to resist the political system. But while a lot of people didn’t know what to do, what to think or how to feel, young people were mobilizing and organizing a power shift, a political power shift, young people all across the country running for office to bring about progressive change. And so what was I going to do, right? I decided to run for city council in the newly elected city of Stonecrest in DeKalb County, Georgia. And I, yeah, you know about DeKalb County? Listen. But I ran for office and, you know, I felt like I had the experience. I was the only person in my election who mobilized across the country for marginalized communities. I was the only person in my election that was over a national civil rights organization, a position that I gained at the age of 14. I was the only person that sat across the table from people like President Barack Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Valerie Jarrett in the Oval Office discussing criminal justice reform. So despite my age, I was qualified. And I never, I mean, young people all across the country began sending money to support our efforts. College students gave up their spring break to knock on doors. And we ran our campaign, not on the basis of me being young, but off the fact that it was time for progressive change in the state of Georgia. And in January of 2017, we received a call saying that my race was being contested by my 73-year-old opponent because he believed that I was just too young to run for office. Well, George Turner, you don’t know me. You’re not deciding this based off the fact that my track record proves otherwise. You make this assumption because of my age, right? And then I thought, this is why so many young people didn’t want to vote in the presidential election because the political process says there is no space for you here. But I said, if George Turner wants to do this, then let’s do it. And I made my own space. We ended up continuing the election and we ended up making it to the runoff. And in the runoff, there were five candidates. I ended up beating three, two of whom were seasoned politicians and three times my senior. And I ended up being in the runoff with George Turner. And while I was on the campaign trail, Min said things to me like, I think it’s really cute you’re running for office. But running for office is an acute manner. And women said things to me like, why are you doing this? And you really need to wait, gain more experience. Elders in my community that once greeted me with hellos and see-laters criminalized me not because I did anything wrong, but because I didn’t need their permission to be great. And so it was a really hard pill to swallow. And George Turner won the election by 22 votes. And so that showed me several things. One, every vote counts. Two, we were able to set a precedent in the state of Georgia that allows 18-year-olds to run for office. Three, that young people were energized by what was happening into Cap County, Georgia. And they began deeming me and tweeting me saying, Mary, because of you, I’m doing this. And they actually won. And three, I’m sorry, and four, create your own space. When you think about all of the great ones like Michael Jordan, who couldn’t even make the high school basketball team, or Jay-Z, who couldn’t even get a record label, so I need to create his own. Or Stacey Abrams, right? Yes, Stacey Abrams, who became the first African-American woman not only to do the state of the union rebuttal address, but the first African-American woman to run for governor in the United States of America. People who didn’t need permission to be great. People who were told they couldn’t and said, who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do? So each day we wake up, there’s conflict and controversy. But you have to be the beacon of light when others just can’t see it. If you’re searching for that permission to be great, right now I’m encouraging you. I’m telling you, you have my permission to create your own space. Okay? Yes. So moving forward, don’t let anyone tell you you can’t because you can. I’m a living example of that. Whether that be becoming a civil rights leader in a male-dominated field or resisting the administration by holding hunger strikes on my campus or Howard and Hampton and mobilizing, being that hill raiser that I am in that photo, you can. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t. So I leave you with this. To no necesita permiso para hacer espacio. Thank you.