Eden Mew
@edenmewonstage pulling it together after I made her cry thinking about death.
-Theatre-
I win the worst person award for making this little girl cry. Yep, I asked her what was scary right now and she told me about death and big tears started rolling down her face.
Shit, America, if we are bringing death and fear to little children’s doors, how are we not seeing that we have totally fucked up? She is a WAY more self-realized and thoughtful human than I was at 12 but still. If I had been confronted with all this at her age I would have simply crumbled under the pressure.
Not pictured are the almost double-digit number of animals her parents have allowed her to adopt during quarantine.
Interviewed 6.24.20
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Text shared with the approval of her parents.
Casey: So first and foremost, Miss Eden, how are you doing today?
Eden: I'm doing pretty well. It's been a pretty good day so far. I played with my bunnies a lot. I talked to my friends. It's a really pretty day outside, which is always nice.
Casey: What grade are you in?
Eden: I just got out of sixth grade and I am now going into seventh grade.
Casey: Okay, great. I got to ask you this because you're the youngest person that I have talked to, how was doing school from home?
Eden: Well, I'm actually homeschooled, so.
Casey: So you've always done school from home?
Eden: Well, I go to an APS approved online school they sent me to because I transferred halfway through the year. And I will say that it has been a little different. I know that it's been completely different from some of my friends that are in public school. Usually, with online school, you always have to go to your standardized testing in person because, while I have never obviously done this, there are some people who like to cheat. But this year they obviously couldn't do that. So instead of taking our standardized test, we had to take finals online. And it was my first time I've ever had to take a final. And, oh, it was it was rough. I got so scared studying for them, but I did pretty well. I was proud of myself.
Casey: Since your homeschooled and you're mostly doing stuff at home, did you miss out on any activities and stuff that you normally do during the spring?
Eden: Well definitely. One big activity I had to miss out on was musical theater because usually the summer is kind of the prime time that a lot of kid's shows are going on. And there are auditions a lot in the spring. And I haven't really had any since Fun Home closed. I haven't had a single musical theater audition because you can't do musical theater anymore. They're saying until 2021 because singing is a super spreader, which is really sad.
But other than that, hanging out with my friends. My birthday is March 22nd. They were going to come over and we were going to have a huge sleepover. But that ended up being canceled. So we got to do it online, which was a lot of fun because we still got to stay up talking. A lot of my activities kind of revolve around musical theater and dancing and singing. So I've been doing online voice lessons, but usually I do them online. My voice recital is usually at a nursing home. And so that was canceled. And then dance lessons I usually do in person and dance is definitely something I want to work on because I am not very technically trained. So I want to just get that ballet foundation down. I am definitely a very physical learner. Once I get muscle memory, as most people do, it sticks. So doing dance online has been kind of hard because usually your dance teacher will come over and correct you, but overall it hasn't been that big of a change. You just record your dances instead of performing them in class. So overall, I've been pretty lucky.
Casey: Have you seen any of your friends?
Eden: Vinnie is the only friend I've seen other than face time calls. They were at the Black Lives Matter march that I went to… the BLM Artist March. So I got to see them then. And then for my birthday, they came over with their family and dropped off gifts. And so we got to talk a bit. And then for their birthday, I went over to their house and dropped off gifts. And then they came over six feet apart and gave us some cinnamon bread.
Casey: How is your family been? How are your parents and your sister holding up?
Eden: My parents and my sister have been doing pretty well. Ever since quarantine started, I've been doing summer camp with my sister to give my mom a break. So for two hours a day, I'll do camp with her and I'll play with her and help her read. I'm really proud of her because she learned to read in quarentine. She's been doing well. I think my parents may be going a bit insane because, ever since quarentine started, we've adopted eight animals.
Casey: Are all the chickens and the bunnies...are all those new?
Eden: Yes. We have a pit bull mix. She's the sweetest dog in the world who we adopted the day quarantine started. Then our chickens came afterwards. And then the two guinea pigs and then the two bunnies.
Casey: Whose idea were these pets? Were these your ideas?
Eden: Yes, ma'am. But we make sure that the guinea pigs have 12 square feet of space. The bunnies have the space they need. I mostly do all the pet care, especially with the bunnies, because they're babies and the rescue needed someone to get them right now. And so they are very little. They're going on six weeks, which is extremely small. So we have to do a lot of intensive care with them. Well maybe I'm the one who's going a bit insane! But other than that my parents have been doing well. My dad's been working a lot because he just won his Supreme Court case.
Casey: What Supreme Court case?
Eden: He won the Supreme Court case last Monday. It was the Supreme Court case that ruled that LGBTQIA+ workers now have protection under the law and can no longer be fired simply because of their sexuality or their sexual orientation. He represented Mr. Gerald Bostock with a partner who left the law firm. So he's now this sole lawyer who represented him. And then he worked with the lawyers for the other two clients, both of which have unfortunately passed away.
Casey: You've been pretty socially involved. You've been involved in this Black Lives Matter movement. Also this amazing landmark case. Are all your friends this socially aware? Cause I was not this socially aware at 12.
Eden: I'm definitely lucky enough to be able to grow up in a world where I am able to surround myself with people from completely different backgrounds who have completely different political and social ideas. But most of my friends do agree with me. Some of my friends are more moderate on certain issues, but most of my friends are very outspoken. Vinny, of course, very outspoken on Black Lives Matter and other social issues. One of my other friends, Alexa, she is a very fierce advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights. And then two of my very close friends, Ellie and Langley, are both very outspoken against our current president and they do a lot of stuff relating to that. And it just amazes me because all of them are 14 or younger. I just think it's wonderful. We're growing up in a world where young people have a voice and can make a change. And just before you came, we were having a lengthy text discussion on the new bill that was passed.
Casey: I would love to know what your average day in quarantine looks like. What have you been doing? What have you been creating if you've been creating at all?
Eden: So usually, I wake up most of the time at about eight a.m. and the first thing I do is feed my animals. I feed my guinea pigs and my bunnies and then I'll take the bunnies out so they can have some time to run around. Then I come outside and I feed the chickens and do their water, and then I'll help take my dogs out. And then I go downstairs and I help to make breakfast.
Then it's about 11:00 a.m. I start camp with my sister at 11:30 every day. So I'll do camp for two hours and then by the time I come in, I'll just have a little break and I like to text my friends, you know, catch up with them and I try to keep in touch with at least two people who are in my social circle every day.
I do spend a lot of time with these two really close friends of mine. And we face time a lot and we like to just share ideas, share thoughts. And it really helps me. I'm an extreme extrovert, so it really helps me feel socially connected, even at a time when we have to be so socially distanced. And then at about 7:30, I'll do my voice lesson until about 8:30. And then I eat dinner and I get so tired.
I try to make a point to clean up my room for ten minutes before bed every day. So it stays nice because, personally, I kind of get stressed out if my room is messy. Because my animals have to live in my room, something in me when I first got them said, "Oh, I need to clean this so they don't get stressed out." I don't know if that's the thing animals get, but if it is, then I'm glad that my animals don't have it. Then I'll feed them and put them to bed and go clean up their cages, put on their covers, and then I go to bed.
It's a very long day, but it's a very fun day.
Casey: That sounds like a very long day. It's a lot of stress right now I'm sure.
Eden: Yes ma'am.
Casey: Is there anything that's been really hard for you with quarantine or with the movements that have been happening lately?
Eden: It's really hard when you step back and you think about all the lives that have been lost. And something that's always been hard for me to handle ever since I was really little is kind of the concept of death. That one day someone is there and the next day they're not. And they don't come back. You think about it. But I think it doesn't really settle in and you can't really digest it until you have a quiet moment. And every quiet moment I have, I find myself reflecting back on the lives of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and these people who have unjustly been murdered because of the color of their skin. And I just think, "Gosh, that's something I'll never have to go through." Because when I was little, when you saw a police officer, you said, "Thank you for your service." You buy them coffee. You're kind to them. And now I have to step back because definitely a lot of those ideas are completely reshaping. And that's for the good.
I've always been someone who has tried my very best to fight for what's right and to fight for the people who need to be fought for. To help amplify the voices of people who need their voices amplified and knowing when to step back and let those people take control. At some point, you just can't be respectful anymore. At some point, it's time to stop crossing your ankles and saying, "Please” and “Thank You."
I'm sorry for rambling but this is very close to my heart.
Casey: Do you think this is something you should be worried about at 12?
Eden: Oh, for sure. There will be so many people who will tell you, no matter what age you are, that you're too young or you're too old to worry about this. But it's up to us and it's up to our generation to decide now what world we want our children and our grandchildren to live in. I think that throughout time, this wasn't a problem people recognized. People weren't willing to give their voice to this. I mean, look how long it took countries to be involved in the Holocaust, and look how many people didn't speak out against the injustices they were seen during the Civil War, and during slavery. And if our generation is lucky enough to have been able to have this history behind us to learn from, then we better learn from it and we better realize that this is the time to use our voices and fight. Because if we don't fight now, we're not going to have a world to live in. I'm very scared for anyone who doesn't in any way, shape, or form fit a mold.
Casey: Is there anything right now that makes you scared or sad? And what do you do when you feel that way to make yourself feel better so that you can keep fighting?
Eden: It's very scary to read these reports of smaller communities and nations like the Navajo Nation being affected by Covid 19. And it's very scary for me when I see people not caring and not social distancing and going out. And it's hard because I am in middle school and middle schoolers will do dumb things. You have to open up social media and see all these pictures of people at the beach and partying and with their friends and that makes me very upset and sad because I have two immunocompromised people in my family. I'm scared for them because I don't want to lose either of them. I don't want to lose them because someone couldn't stay at home. And when I get scared about things like that, what's best for me is to take a breath, turn off my phone, put it down, not pick it up for a day or a couple days and focus on my immediate circle. Focus on what I can do right now to help my family and then go back and read the news because the news is hard to read.
It seems like there's no good news anymore. But I found ways to put my own good news back into my life, like, "Oh, that flowers blooming. And it looks pretty. Oh, the bunnies are really happy today. Oh, Emmie read your first word." And while, obviously, our world is very bad right now. We shouldn't ignore those problems. Some days it's good for me to sit back and focus on the good. So I can go back to fighting the bad.
Casey: That's a hard lesson to learn. What do you miss about before?
Eden: I think I miss the sense of stableness. And I don't know if that stableness came from ignorance on my part, but...
Casey: It came from ignorance on all of our parts, not just you.
Eden: The thought that life is going to stay the same. The privilege of living in a neighborhood where I don't have to worry about police officers coming to houses and arresting people for no reason. I've heard that now they're setting off fireworks every night to desensitize people to the sound of gunshots. And I miss the sense of stableness that my friends will be here tomorrow. You know, my family will be here tomorrow. My world will be here tomorrow. And I miss the sense of, “Oh, yeah, there's some bad things right now and we've got to fight, we got to go out and protest, but if we protest hard enough, they'll go away.” Because I'm not sure if they'll go away.
There will always be people who are racist and sexist and homophobic. And I think that before Covid 19, before going through what is the largest civil rights movement right now, part of me was fine with saying there will always be these people. There are some good people and I could change their minds and I go out and protest and that's going to make a difference. But there will always be some people like that. And, you know, that's OK. And it's not OK. And that's scary to me because now those people are coming together and they're making a community of white supremacists. And I'm very scared.
Casey: A lot of the people I interview are a little bit older than you. I asked them, what do you think you'll take away from this part of life? And I want to ask you that question, but I kind of want to add a caveat.
What do you think you'll take away from this time in your life? But how do you think it will affect how you remember your childhood?
Eden: Well, I was born in 2008, so I was born into a very....
Casey: Insert Casey vomiting sound here. Ok. 2008.
Eden: I was born into a very tumultuous country. Our country's very young compared to most other countries. And I was born into a time where there were thousands of movements fighting for justice. Which was great! That's fabulous. I don't think there's ever been a time in my life where there hasn't been a huge movement fighting for justice for all people, which is something I love about my generation. And I feel so lucky to be able to be born in this time period. So looking back on my childhood, which is like four years ago…
Casey: I would argue it is still happening but okay.
Eden: I definitely see the seeds of this happening. And I am proud of who I was as a young child. I
think when I grew up, I did have these ideas that, “You can't be discriminatory here because this is America and this is the land of the free. And if you're like that, then you are the small percent of the population who is wrong.”
And growing up and going to larger schools, I realized, “This is America. This is supposed to be the land of the free. You are part of a larger discriminatory population. Your ideas are wrong. Let me challenge you on that. Let me change your mind in a respectful way.”
Now, “This is America, the land where we are proud to be fighting for everyone to be free. You are part of the discriminatory population and I must change your mind because if I don't, I am scared of what you will become.”
So back to the question.
I hope I will have an adult life. And I know that sounds dark, but I don't know because every 10 minutes a child dies in Yemen. Every protest that happens, there are police mistreating people and arresting them. And I don't know if at the rate we're going, I will have an adulthood, but I really hope that I'll be able to. And I believe we'll be able to make lasting change if we work hard enough now. That will ensure a better world for me when I become an adult.
And I think I will always be very outspoken on things that are close to my heart and always fight for justice. I used to be scared. What would people think of me if I did this? Well, I shall stay respectful, even if their ideas are wrong so that they think of me well. And now if they don't like me because of my ideas then I don't want to be friends with them anyways. It's hard to phrase just one idea. I hope I will have an adulthood. I believe I will. At the rate we're going, we'll have justice for everyone. And I know that if I don't when I'm an adult, I will probably die trying to have that. And I will no longer be afraid. Being inspired by the brave men and women and nonbinary people at the protests speaking up. I will no longer be afraid to speak up and I will be a brave young adult who always speak up on what is right.
Casey: I'm sorry you're upset.
Eden: Oh, no, no, it's not… It's hard. And a lot of what matters right now is getting overshadowed in the news by stories of celebrities. I opened the news and I see no stories of what's happening in Yemen. And I see less and less stories about Black Lives Matter. And this isn't a trend and it's not over. And we haven’t achieved justice. Brianna's murderers; the only thing that happened is one of them got fired. We haven't achieved justice and we need to keep fighting and... It's scary, but it needs to be done. I'm sorry I'm getting emotional.
Casey: I feel bad that I made a little girl cry.
Eden: You didn't make me cry. The World Today made me cry.
Casey: Is there anything else that you want to share that you want to remember about all of this?
Eden: I want to remember that quarentine wasn't all terrible and it was an opportunity to make a change and to help others change their minds on the way the world runs and the world is today.
I don't want to look back on it and only see the bad memories. But I certainly don't want to only see the good memories. It's a time that if we work hard, it’ll be over soon and soon we'll all be able to hug at the protests and protest together.
Casey: I'm going to turn this off now before I start crying.
