Gender Stereotypes

From a very early age I was considered as a very unconventional child, preferring to assist my relatives with necessary tasks instead of playing outside. One of my earliest memories was my stay at my aunt’s house as she was recovering from surgery, and me living with her a few weeks to tend to all her needs, keep her company and basically be her on-call nursemaid. This nurturing and caring side of me has always been evident and played out again and again. I grew up in a rural very low-income area where when sickness or illness is commonplace and family makes up your community. So, when my sister would prefer to play “pretend school” or my two younger boy cousins would be play fighting out in my grandma’s front yard, I would be often times learning

The woman and girls who have faced the unimaginable and have survived, the woman and girls who we have forgotten about and cast aside no matter the amount of scar tissue laid upon their hearts. Issues of trauma, abuse, body image, rape culture, inequality, racism, are just a few social justice issues that need to be brought to the surface and given back to us women and girls. To allow these people the ability to own what has happened to them and no longer cower and stick to the shadows of life. Art and Healing, goes beyond just this simple idea of Art Therapy, but I believe it can become something so integrated into your life to become a part of you, whether you feel that you are creative or not-everyone has the capability to feel and has that want to be heard. To have their story as a person, as an individual to be heard is so vitally important and something I myself am still in the process of learning. I don’t want to become another individual that enters these women and girl’s lives and says “here, do this” or someone that digs deep into their life and invests for a short time only to get up and walk away the next day. This is not only detrimental, but I have experienced both of these and found my heart more injured than

A true leader does not strive to stand out amidst the crowd, but rather to be a part, a piece of the crowd. Someone who can look at those around them and say, “you matter” “you are important” “you are perfect just the way you are” and “you are worth fighting for.” Jesus honestly gives us the best example of what a true leader looks like simply because he chose to live simply, dress simply, and he didn’t look any different than from his neighbor, yet when he spoke or acted-that was what was different. Jesus chose to be the perfect example of a leader and his ultimate sacrifice showed us how much he loved us, how much he would suffer and endure alongside of us, even though he didn’t have to. Yes I realize people will continue to turn to me and ask “why I care” but Jesus didn’t need a “why” for his “how” he did it because he was unconventional and because he loved us all no matter who we were, no matter our sins or pasts and no matter what other people said.” He loved us for who we were not who the world said we should