Elaboration on one of the best things that happened yesterday

I must say that I really have hope now about what the future holds for people like me. Yesterday at the airport me several of the girls who were leaving out of the same terminal got some food and started swapping stories. That's when I dropped by bombshell, thinking "What the hell?" and deciding I had nothing to lose. And just like my roommate, they were completely cool with it. And one, who seriously wants to be the President of the United States, promised that she'll veto any ammendments that come across her desk that would be disciminatory.

My main belief about things like this is that it's best for people to get to know me before finding out about that. My reasons are two-fold: The first being that I think if they know me before finding that it out it becomes harder to put me in a box and tell me I'll be going to hell or whatever, and the second being that I don't believe I should let one aspect of my person define me. This isn't directed at anyone here, per se, but I don't like it when people use their sexuality as the singular aspect of their personality. There's a lot more to people than who they are attracted to, and I believe that if only one aspect of a person is presented to the world, that person will be judged by that one aspect. Hence I find it important to get to know people before I tell them that, so they realize there's more to me. Granted, I get why people are proud of it and want to show the world that they are proud, but there comes a point when I think it crosses the line and can become harmful to that person. Anyway, rant over.

As I mentioned briefly I also discovered that people apparently think I'm cool, since the day everyone was swapping contact information I was literally swamped by people who want to talk to me more. I was surprised, since in all honesty I didn't say too much during the conference and took some time to open up. As my mother suggested perhaps it was because I didn't say much that people were encouraged to get to know me, the old "Still waters run deep" thing. Either way I have a network of people I can contact from all over the country now, as well as a new surge of confidence in how I interract with people.

It'll probably take a few days for all of this to sink in, but it was definately worth it, complaints aside. And since my going there in the first place was entirely luck, I keep thinking that something must be looking out for me up there. I guess I must've done something right in that case...

Great story from GirlsLead

We were told this story by a guest speaker about women's traditional roles in society, and how we aren't quite as passive as history has presented us. I don't remember quite who said it, but it's definately worth putting up here:

Barbara Walters went over to Afghanistan to interview women under the Taliban rule, focusing mainly on the opression women faced as well as their total submission to their husbands. One practice she noticed was that women would walk about 5 paces behind their husbands at all times.

When the Taliban was defeated she went back to see how conditions had changed a few years later, but to her surprise women were still walking behind their husbands, in fact some were walking even farther behind them than they had in the past. Walters was puzzled by this, and one day pulled over a woman on the street to inquire why. She asked:

"The Taliban is gone, you're free, so why are you still walking behind your husbands?"

The woman looked Walters directly in the eye, and said one word:

"Landmines."

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