Learning to Fly - Post 2
Quote of the Day: "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game." - A Cinderella Story
It's 1 a.m. and I should have been in bed a couple of hours ago. I have a meeting tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM and I don't even want to think about how hard it will be to get out of bed that early. In case you didn't know: I am NOT a morning person!
But there's something I've been thinking about...
It all started when I was doing laundry tonight. I hate doing laundry. The worst part is when you get the clothes out of the dryer and you have to fold them...and in some cases even iron them. It takes forever and you know in a few days, you'll just have to do it all over again.
I was walking down the hallway and I saw light in my office. Did I leave the light on by mistake? My dad's a physics teacher and all about conserving energy...so I rush over to the office to turn the light off. As I open the door, I find one of my RAs sitting at my computer. He's been using my computer to do his homework because one of the programs he needs doesn't work on his machine.
We start chatting. He's quite the character and comes up with the most random comments. So we're talking about feminism and - knowing that I am a feminist - he says, "Did you know that [another RA] says that she wouldn't care if the feminist movement never happened?"
Silence. I look at him. I'm not really sure what he expects me to say. Did he think I would die from shock that someone actually said that.
"Because she'd be happy to be a housewife and raise children and all that," he goes on...trying to get a reaction from me.
So this started a whole debate about what it really means to be a feminist and what feminists fight for. I believe that it's all about having the choice whether you want to have a career as a woman or whether you want to be a stay-at-home mom. I'm not saying one is better than the other...but it should be your choice and not something society forces onto you.
But is it enough to just have the choice between the two? Shouldn't we, as women, be able to have both? A man can have a career and a family. But can a woman do that?
I love my job and I could never imagine not working. But would I be able to continue working as I do now and have a family, run a household, raise my children? I want to move up in the field, but can you be a Director of ResLife, a Dean of Students or even a Vice President of Student Affairs and have children? If I had a husband, who's willing to be a stay-at-home dad, definitely. But would I want that? I'm not going to carry this baby for 9 months, then spend some painful hours in labor and after that push it off to his father and only see it on weekends and holidays. I want to be a mom...a mom who's around...a mom who goes to school plays and soccer games...a mom who makes sure that there's always a fresh batch of cookies on the table when the children get home from school.
But I also want a career. I want to make a difference in this field. I want to have an impact on students, take the lead on new initiatives, shape departments, be regionally and nationally active in professional organizations and and and.
But am I asking for too much?
It's 1 a.m. and I should have been in bed a couple of hours ago. I have a meeting tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM and I don't even want to think about how hard it will be to get out of bed that early. In case you didn't know: I am NOT a morning person!
But there's something I've been thinking about...
It all started when I was doing laundry tonight. I hate doing laundry. The worst part is when you get the clothes out of the dryer and you have to fold them...and in some cases even iron them. It takes forever and you know in a few days, you'll just have to do it all over again.
I was walking down the hallway and I saw light in my office. Did I leave the light on by mistake? My dad's a physics teacher and all about conserving energy...so I rush over to the office to turn the light off. As I open the door, I find one of my RAs sitting at my computer. He's been using my computer to do his homework because one of the programs he needs doesn't work on his machine.
We start chatting. He's quite the character and comes up with the most random comments. So we're talking about feminism and - knowing that I am a feminist - he says, "Did you know that [another RA] says that she wouldn't care if the feminist movement never happened?"
Silence. I look at him. I'm not really sure what he expects me to say. Did he think I would die from shock that someone actually said that.
"Because she'd be happy to be a housewife and raise children and all that," he goes on...trying to get a reaction from me.
So this started a whole debate about what it really means to be a feminist and what feminists fight for. I believe that it's all about having the choice whether you want to have a career as a woman or whether you want to be a stay-at-home mom. I'm not saying one is better than the other...but it should be your choice and not something society forces onto you.
But is it enough to just have the choice between the two? Shouldn't we, as women, be able to have both? A man can have a career and a family. But can a woman do that?
I love my job and I could never imagine not working. But would I be able to continue working as I do now and have a family, run a household, raise my children? I want to move up in the field, but can you be a Director of ResLife, a Dean of Students or even a Vice President of Student Affairs and have children? If I had a husband, who's willing to be a stay-at-home dad, definitely. But would I want that? I'm not going to carry this baby for 9 months, then spend some painful hours in labor and after that push it off to his father and only see it on weekends and holidays. I want to be a mom...a mom who's around...a mom who goes to school plays and soccer games...a mom who makes sure that there's always a fresh batch of cookies on the table when the children get home from school.
But I also want a career. I want to make a difference in this field. I want to have an impact on students, take the lead on new initiatives, shape departments, be regionally and nationally active in professional organizations and and and.
But am I asking for too much?
posted by StudentAffairs.com at
9:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home