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Adoption and Child Separation at the Border


Monday, April 6, 2015

Disclaimer: I do not speak for every adoptee

Red-Sox Fan Me
I identify many different ways.  For example, I identify as a woman, who happens to work in a STEM field.  There are times I have conversations with people that are uniquely shaped with what I have experienced as a woman working in a male dominated field.  I can give statistics, I can explain how it feels to know I make less than my coworkers, I can explain how I've been in situations where my gender has influenced my coworkers to ignore my thoughts and ideas, and I can state my experiences as the only woman on a six man team.  I never have to say "and of course not all women working in a STEM field feel this way".  It's accepted that I'm speaking based on my experiences.  I've never had to qualify or defend my feelings.  My male coworkers except it.  They've seen it.  And they value my opinion on the matter.  I've even had some adjust their behavior because of these conversations.

I identify myself as a college graduate.  I went to a Jesuit school where I was also a Resident Assistant.  I've had conversations regarding my experience and education.  There were good and bad parts of my college experience.  I can explain how I happy felt when part of my education was based on service to others and how I was encouraged to go on service trips.  I can talk about how frustrated I felt when tuition was increased during my time at college and my scholarship did not increase with it.  I can tell stories about finding people I cared about sick with alcohol because they were too scared of getting in trouble with the school to get medical help because they desperately needed it.  But never do I have to qualify that not all college graduates feel this way, nor do all Resident Assistants see the same things.