Friday, July 13, 2012

Half Way There!

Oh gosh, Friday the 13. Luckily, there was no bad luck throughout this day. Today's agenda consisted of gender roles and their expectations, following with guest speakers. We were also able to squeeze in some time to work on our action plans.

Kisa started the day off by separating everyone into five groups. Our task was to talk about how girls and boys are expected to act in society. We had four questions, what does acting like a lady mean, what does man up mean, and what happens when both act outside of its norm. Comments like good posture, stylish, and feminine were associated with our first question. If a girl decided to act outside of this criteria, she would be called derogatory names. Stable, strong, and emotionless were connected to boys.  If they showed any emotions, other males would criticize that they are gay or a sissy. Both genders are bullied and there are many double standards between them.

Afterwards, Suzy Alba, our guest speaker, came to talk about her role in her community. She was very active in her high school and college career. She loved what she was doing and became motivated to run for city council. Her campaign means she needs to be exposed to the public and therefore introduced networking. Without it, you won't have any connections with people or not as many opportunities. Along with networking should come passion. Suzy has doubted herself many times that she wouldn't win the election. She came up with ideas like she didn't have as much experience as the other competitors or that she's too young. All of her negativity increased her lack of faith. She finally came to the realization that she loves and wants to make a difference in her community. Her passion led her to continue on with her attempt to win. Suzy's eagerness to follow her dreams inspired me to achieve my goals, especially the action plan. No matter how much you doubt yourself, you will overcome your obstacles as long as you are passionate.

During the second part of class, we had another speaker arrive. Selena came to talk about her action plan and the procedures she's planning to work with. She wants to educate others about human trafficking that is occurring in our backyards, the United States. With such a sensitive topic, Selena has dealt with rising issues such as negative opinions. Her ambition has created her to endure the drawbacks and to move on forward. Passion and ambition seemed like the two most important qualities when dealing with controversy. Selena is only 16 and she is on her way to make a difference. That showed me that anyone can do it, no matter how difficult it may seem, as long as you possess those characteristics.

A week of class has officially passed! There is so much to do in so little time. Kisa and the TAs have been great with showing support and interests to our thoughts. Only one more week to go and the day to present our action plan is just around the corner. Preparation and sleep will be my two motivators in the next few days. 

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