I have been avoiding writing this first post for awhile now because I am never sure where I should begin. I think starting with who I am and why I am here is the best way to begin.
I am a 24 year old woman living in New Jersey and working as a Domestic Violence Counselor. As people usually describe themselves with their job and where they live, it is not exactly my ideal as I am at a place where I don't want to be at either of the places at this point. I have been working at the Women's Center for about 2 years. I got this job because I wanted to help women. I knew growing up that I could do anything since I often proclaimed I would be the first woman president, an Oscar winning actress, ballerina, stay at home mom, and Snapple lady. I was extremely lucky to be in a supportive home as I grew up that led me to believe that if I worked hard, I could achieve what I wanted. I saw there was something that didn't match up in my own home and the outside world. I didn't see and women leaders or heroines. The pictures in the magazine ads and messages I got from television and my peers were ones that made me feel insecure about my body, my abilities, and my intelligence. I saw that other women were not encouraged to pursue their dreams. They weren't being taught that they can be anything. They weren't being taught that they were beautiful, that the deserved respect and love, that they deserved to make their own choices, and that they were smart enough to make those decisions.
Working with survivors of domestic violence has been a challenge. Some days are wonderful because I know I am making a difference. Some days are not so easy. My last two years here have been rewarding. I have seen how strong and brave women are to come out of abusive situations and be able to share their stories to aid other women suffering in silence get the help they need.
I am currently hoping to make a transition and move to New York City. Applying for jobs has been an extremely stressful process, but as they are going to be raising my rent in a few months so I need to hurry up and make the move sooner rather than later. I have focused on looking for different non-profit jobs. I want to work doing something in the sexual and reproductive health field. Preferably doing outreach work rather than being a caseworker. I want to take a break from being an individual counselor as well as from domestic violence, although I want to use knowledge and skills from both of those in my new work. I do think that more people need to hear about abusive relationships while learning about sexuality. I would also love to work with teens. I have also applied for different administrative assistant, executive assistant, and development assistant jobs.
Thats a little of what I am doing, not so much the "who I am" question. For now, I'll stick with it. For the "why am I here?" question. I have been very active in reading many blogs for a while now. I read many feminism, womanism, anti-racist, fat acceptance, LGBTQ themed blogs. I also keep a lot of just entertainment RSS feeds on my reader like webcomics and daily pictures and quotes. (Not to say that the feminism isn't entertaining too.) My point is that I want a space where I can react and speak my mind. I am not a big commenter on any one blog and I don't find myself being a part of the conversation very often. I want a place where I can share what I think is important with what I am reading on the internet and in books and magazines. I want to be able to talk about what I am dealing with at work at my current job and with my job searches. I also want to be able to react to the media and political world in my own space. So, I just joined the millions of bloggers on the internet. I don't expect to be famous or to have a million people reading what I write. This is just my soap box that I can occasionally stand on and maybe one passerby will hear what I have to say and it will effect them in some way.
Thanks for stopping by.
