"By placing an abortion clinic within an orphanage, Irving creates an interesting juxtaposition and a difficult dilemma for the reader. The reader is forced to contemplate what it means to give up a baby, whether for adoption or to terminate the pregnancy."
My mother told me to read this book 4 years ago and I put it off, it matched perfectly for my Honors 394 essay assignment and I seriously regret putting it off. This book was absolutely breathtaking and this is one of my favorite quotes from the essay I wrote about it
This is a photograph of the audience at one of the workshops I helped organize for the Rivkin Center. I got to attend multiple this quarter and each time I learned something new about my body. It was so powerful to see women learn how to take control of their health care and see them become empowered in under an hour.
"While we are there to support these kids, we are not there to save them. It can be difficult to not fall into white saviorism, but to provide these kids with the help they deserve, I must focus on them, not myself."
Above is a quote from Reflection #7 in my Dreamers course. I gained immense perspective from the opportunity to mentor Seattle high schoolers. This course was my first time volunteering in the Seattle community, while it was difficult at times I really enjoyed the work and hope that I made a positive difference.
It seems to be becoming a pattern, as each quarter I enroll in a class that captivates me and ends up altering what I want to do with the rest of my time in college and eventual career. This quarter, this course was Bio 200. I was surprised to find myself so engaged with a general ‘weed out’ biology course. AP Biology was my first favorite class in highschool and to get to study it again was so exciting. I loved learning about cellular functions and anatomy, microbiology is so intriguing to me, and I had a wonderful time in a usually grueling class. I was just starting both of my internships and was somehow able to balance everything on top of a part time job as a hostess. I fell in love with my internship at the Rivkin Center, and had so much fun helping educate women about their personal health. I have met so many inspirational women through this internship, it is a wonderful girl power experience. Additionally, I got to study health education in Honors 391, Race, Gender, Diaspora, & Population Health. This class was an excellent education on the historical ethical violations and disparities that continue to plague our country. Yet another class that really pushed my thinking and allowed me to grow. My other internship was less exciting to me, it consisted of a lot of outreach and marketing and I realized that I wanted to be doing direct health work, not helping support it, and I certainly hated marketing. Winter 2020 was the first ‘Seattle’ winter I had the privilege of experiencing. And it rained. Constantly. Winter 2019 in Seattle was full of either snow or sun. I hadn’t had to persevere through the seemingly endless days of dreariness and drizzle that Seattlites are so accustomed to. I quickly realized it was far from enjoyable and invested in a better raincoat. The last few weeks of the quarter were filled with a lot of panic and anxiety. I felt like every morning I would wake up and see something more concerning than the day before, a dramatic rise in cases in Italy, one more case found around Kirkland, Trump discussing banning flights to Europe. I had no idea this feeling would become a part of my daily routine. I didn’t know when to fly home, if I should go home, how to focus on zoom classes enough to make it through finals. My mom graciously answered my calls every day talking me through my frantic thoughts. It’s funny how fast life was moving and how in a matter of days it came to a halt. Finally, I took Educ 260/369, a course where a group of UW students trained and then worked at Seattle highschools with highschoolers to develop post high school plans. Every Wednesday morning my peers and I drove UW cars to Summit Sierra High School 15 minutes south in the central district. We were each assigned classrooms where we would work with students for an hour discussing post high school ideas, college application essays, current classwork and schedules. I learned so much more about Seattle, how much I value person to person interaction, and that I enjoyed working with students.