Time: something that I’ll always long to control.
When I was little and would be asked what superpower I wish I could have, the answer would always be to control time. It seems like 5 minutes in the morning is a trick, while waiting 5 minutes for an uber ages me. I think more than anything, the urge to control time for me comes from the anxiety in moments like this: transient times.
As I unpack from the previous semester and repack my life for New York this summer within the next week, I can’t help but feel an intense wave of agitation. Maybe, this is a chronic symptom of being a nineteen year old, but I can feel the potential of this summer.
Growing up in Chicago, the striking barriers to health and education services that affected quality of life solidified my interest in health, particularly related to women’s issues. Once I got to Duke I started joining feminist groups where I heard the physical manifestations of a downward trend of confidence through Duke women’s undergraduate careers (drawn from the findings of former President Nannerl Keohane’s Women’s Initiative report). Further propelled by overreach on women’s health autonomy and the recent cut into the window for abortion in North Carolina, there really is no better time to be agitated as a woman.
Starting on Tuesday, I will be working with Lower Eastside Girls Club as part of DukeEngage. While my fleshed out project plans are still in the works, I am setting out to collaborate and learn of the difficulties when providing wellness services to a gender expansive and multigenerational community through the new Wellbeing and Happiness center. Through my short time with Lower Eastside Girls Club I hope to explore the relationship between community health through systems-change programming for social justice. My work particularly excites me because I have the potential to gain awareness of how social justice is attempted from a women’s organization, which I hope to use in the future to push for reproductive power.
At this point, I am unsure how much impact I, an ambitious Duke student with many intentions for this summer, will really be able to accomplish in the blip of time I am collaborating with Lower Eastside Girls Club. But, I hope to utilize this transient time to soak up approaches to health and gender inequity.
