I adopted a new identity this past week of working at Choices- Condom Czar or perhaps the Corona Condom Captain. On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend a public health fair in Corona Queens on behalf of Choices Women’s Medical Center. I woke up bright and early and made the commute to the Corona District Health Center. From 9am to 2:30, the outreach coordinator at Choices and I sat at a small folding table laden with brochures, diagrams, and birth control demo props and talked with passing community members about what services at Choices may be of interest to them.

The most noticeable thing about our table, and what likely drew the most people in, was the piles of condoms in all colors of the rainbow prominently placed on our table. I initially found it uncomfortable to speak with older individuals about their sexual health, but the more I had those conversations, the more comfortable I became explaining to elderly women that they were still at risk of STIs and then I would gesture at them to grab a handful of the free condoms. This experience working directly with the public has made me think a lot about my aspirations for the future and the work I’m doing this summer. 

In high school, I was really involved in local politics, and when I came to Duke, I had planned to study political science and public policy. I felt deeply committed to making change on the global stage. If you had asked me then what my career ambitions were, I would have said senator then president. I had this really firm belief that making change on a small, personal level was so insignificant in the grand scheme of all the injustice in the world. As I navigated my college career, I began to realize how much I value interpersonal relationships and how meaningful small actions to right injustice can be. It was this shift in my perception of change that guided me to completely switch my academic and career ambitions at the end of my sophomore year to begin on the pre-med track. While I still think that significant change has to happen on an institutional level, I think that the devaluing of personal relationships and community building locally undermines any attempt at these larger changes. A lot of progressive organizations and campaigns become so fixated on these large-scale problems and their bright and shiny solutions that they completely forget about the very real harm being done to marginalized communities every day as a result of oppressive symptoms. I think that this prioritization also reflects the fact that the largely privileged individuals writing laws and running these organizations won’t directly feel the impact of these issues and may only identify with their cause on an ideological level.

While both the founder and various staff members at Choices have spoken to me about their work advocating for women’s rights and abortion access, the center is primarily focused on the individual patients who walk through the doors each day. Choices moved to Jamaica Queens because it was one of the NYC neighborhoods most in need of abortion services and reproductive healthcare. Each patient served by Choices is given another opportunity to live their life on the path that they choose. Tabling at the health fair primarily serves to help provide education and contraceptive resources to individuals who happen to pass by. If even one person is motivated to take steps to protect their health then that feels like a win. I have loved the opportunities I’ve gotten these past 2 weeks to help with patients, and it makes me excited about what the rest of the summer will bring and my future career as a doctor. I have thoroughly enjoyed the readings and discussions in MOXIE, but I think that many of these conversations fall into the more ideological realm. I think that our conversations around objectification and harm provide an excellent framework for service, but, ultimately, I think that the small conversations I had with patients in the surgical recovery room at Choices have been the most impactful aspect of my MOXIE journey thus far.