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I Am a Work in Progress

#iloveme

By Yvonne ColemanPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Since the beginning of my educational career, I have always been drawn to the importance of helping others. Before my mother passed away eleven years ago, I always dreamed about becoming a nurse, but it wasn’t until midway through my college experience that I realized that the medical field was not for me. It was during that time when I found myself being challenged. It was also during that time when I found my true passion, the act of servicing my community, working with young women and girls. I began my research on the topic of beauty representation in the media as well as in society and realized the amount of psychological damage, and psychological harm it does to women and girls starting at a young age. It was at that time that I picked up women and gender studies as a major because I was so intrigued.

As one of the first students to major in women and gender studies at Alverno College in Milwaukee, my studies primarily focused on the development of theory, research presented in the fields related to women and gendered studies, in various feminist frameworks and perspectives. At that, Feminist Theory, which I learned was the exploration of women represented in societal roles, literature, and most importantly, inequality amongst women. Fast forwarding to the semester I have seen first. Back in February of this year, I, the student, was the patient. Within a three-month time frame, I quickly learned that we cannot always see things through a specific perspective or through a narrow lens.

“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, get it right side up again! And now they are asking to do it, the men better let them,” Sojourner Truth, 1851.

Although I believe that is very much true, after working with women for the past few months, I have realized the lack of motivation, confidence, and endurance among women which leads to depression and other mental illnesses, which I feel I had been ignoring for many years. But what I have also learned is that, as women, we must learn to embrace the personal power from within, and embrace ourselves as women. As we also must recognize that we will have limitations, especially minority women but that when we must challenge those limitations and be the voice of the silent. Lastly, in part of the feminist theoretical perspective, as a counselor in training I feel that future patients of mine should always keep in mind their worth and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy per the APA dictionary of psychology is defined as, “An individual’s capacity to act effectively to bring desired results, especially as perceived by the individual” (VandenBos, 2007). But in addition to self-efficacy, we must focus on the importance of self-care, finding things that we like to do to relax, or to wind down. Self-care can be seen in different ways such as journaling, crafting, Pinteresting, or something as simple as treating yourself to a nice cup of coffee. We are always evolving, we are always a work in progress.

feminism
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About the Creator

Yvonne Coleman

Hello!

I am Yvonne, Blogger and Author from Wisconsin. My biggest passion when it comes to writing is the ability to self reflect on all life experiences, and also remaining as authentic and transparent as I can.

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