I have learned and grown so much already this summer; it’s crazy to think that it’s only been a few weeks. This might be weird to say, but I can actually feel myself gaining understanding about certain things. Sometimes, I will think of things and then reflect to myself, “Wow, that was a really good idea, I don’t think you would’ve thought of that in the past.” It’s definitely been a challenge to push myself out of my comfort zone. I’ve been trying to learn how to use R to code for data, and it’s overwhelming, but I’ve been trying to have a growth mindset and tell myself that I can learn anything.
I’ve also been thinking a lot about my social identity through this work and how it impacts the way I think about and experience the world. I recognize that I have a lot of privilege. I grew up as a middle-class, white, cis-woman. I know for a fact that a lot of these factors have a major influence on even the tiniest things. I think it’s so valuable to be able to recognize that and to recognize that every single person has a million different things that impact their life experience. Especially as someone who wants to go into healthcare, this is so so important to me.
I absolutely love my major (Gender and Health) because it gets me thinking about these sorts of things and challenges my pre-existing beliefs about the way the world works. In my opinion, I think every single major/career could benefit from learning about their social identities and how other people’s social identities might have an impact as well.
This has kind of turned into a ramble about social identities, but in general, this summer has been amazing so far. I am excited to continue and see how our results turned out!