Hello Everyone!!! ☺ I’m writing this from my couch after watching a very fascinating episode of Star Trek: Voyager. It was about faith, and so it feels like an appropriate time to pause and do my DPF homework!
My name is Kate Myers, and I’m an Ethics and Social change major at the University of Evansville. I also have concentrations in Sociology and Religion. I’ll graduate next semester after spending my last semester abroad studying in a MANOR in the UK! I’m super excited! I want to eventually become a therapist. (Many people ask me what I plan on doing with my degree, so I thought I’d get on top of the question.) I took a jewelry making class this past semester and kind of fell in love with it, so I’m hoping to continue that as a hobby for myself. I probably think too much, and I like to laugh. That pretty much sums up who I am!
I guess I should tell you about why I’m here, and how I ended up becoming a peace intern. My pastor, Helen, told me about this internship, and it seemed right up my alley. (Getting paid to go to camp and talk with people about social justice and morality and whatnot? Ummm….YES!) So I applied, and I was excepted (obviously), and now I’m really excited to live out this opportunity! I’m particularly hoping to grow my empathy and conversational skills this summer, and to maybe help grow the conversational skills and empathy of others along the way! For me, having a conversation with someone means working to understand that person, and to grow and learn together throughout the process. Now that can be a lot of work! I don’t expect people to have conversations like this all the time, but I feel that we at least ought to be having them sometimes. I think it’s especially important now because I feel like we, as Americans, often get locked into debate with one another—instead of conversations, we have verbal battles, and I don’t think you can really win one of those, because if you “defeat” your opponent, who benefits? Did they grow? Did you?
I know, I know, I laid it on a little heavy; forgive me. I’m an ethics major; it’s my job to make people uncomfortable! I’m only partly kidding. For me, part of being ethical is being kind to one another, but part of it also means taking a firm stand against injustice, and sometimes that means making people uncomfortable. Socrates described himself as a gadfly; an annoying, biting bug. He felt it was his job to upset people—to make them uncomfortable and get them thinking about things they probably wouldn’t think about if they didn’t get a little uncomfortable. (Socrates was eventually killed by the state, sooooo…..take that into account if you intend to follow in his footsteps lol. And never let anyone tell you that being a philosopher isn’t dangerous!) Socrates, like pretty much every historical figure, was not without fault and controversy, but his description of himself as a gadfly has always inspired me.
I hate change! (I know that seems to have come out of left field, but bear with me.) Change is very scary for me in many ways, so I know as well as anyone how uncomfortable change can be. But I also think change is beautiful, and change is necessary. Everything changes; it is the nature of life. Feel the fear and do it anyway. That’s how I’ve come to feel about change. I want to inspire people to change for the better, as people have inspired me to do the same. I have benefited so much from change and growth. And it has been painful and uncomfortable! But having kind and patient people with me along my journey has made it so much better. I won’t claim to say that I’ll inspire or change anyone I meet this summer, but I suppose there’s a chance that I might. And even if I don’t, I know that I’ll have that same potential for inspiration and growth. So I’m excited to find out what lies ahead and greet it with an open heart!
I realize this was more of an essay than a blog, but this is what you get when you hire a humanities student who writes reflections about social justice day in and day out, DPF! Hahahaha! To any readers out there, thanks for tuning in; I know it’s a time commitment ;)