Weekly Activism Log 1

This week I worked with members from our group on various occasions. On Monday I met via phone conference with our group. I could not be at the meeting to debrief about UCF day, so I called in while I was in the office at work. I had to listen on and off since I would sometimes need to help someone who came in the office, but overall I was able to listen in and get a general understanding of everyone’s thoughts on UCF day and thoughts for our Body Appreciation Workshop. On Wednesday I met up with Maddie and Alexa at Panera Bread. We discussed what we thought our objective should be and talked about some possible activities that were related to our new objective. On Friday I met with Emily, Ann, Catherine, and Grace in the library for or usual weekly meeting. At this meeting we looked over the feedback from Emily V. on our Body Appreciation Workshop second draft. There were many concerns addressed from Emily. We decided to take a step back and reevaluate our thoughts for the project. We realized our draft wasn’t very fun and decided we shouldn’t focus so much on teaching the girls to appreciate their bodies, but rather let them do activities that will allow them to appreciate their bodies.

At my meeting with Alexa and Maddie we had a lot of discussion about the ominous mind body divide. We talked about it in connection to health as we were talking about our project. We wanted to help the girls recognize that there is more to being healthy than just eating habits and physical activity, but rather that emotions and relationships heavily affect your health. This got us talking about the mind body divide. I still have a lot of hesitancies with fully accepting this idea of the mind and body all being one. In Torres article “At Home in My Body” she says “Separating mind from the body in the appropriate context, in my case, has led to a better union between the two” (223). Though I am definitely aware that the mind and body are intricately connected, I also can see the strength that can be gained from separating the two. This project has allowed me to think about this concept a lot.

This service learning project is definitely a growing experience. We have obviously had many frustrations as a group but have been really trying to work together and make our project successful. This project has taught me a lot about myself. I sometimes feel fearful or worried about joining groups or working for causes because I feel that I am unworthy in a sense. For instance, I am passionate about LGBTQ rights. However, sometimes I will refrain from working with a group for that cause because I feel that there are so many activists that know more about the cause than I do and I don’t feel I have enough to bring to the table. This project has helped me to see that I don’t have to know everything to be a beneficial part of the group. In many of our meetings I feel that I am helping to keep the group focused or make specific and tangible goals for our meetings. I may not know everything about girls and the body or the mind body divide, but I can still help our group to complete its overall goal and that is nice to realize.

Works Cited
Torres , Allison. "At Home In My Body." Trans. ArrayBody Outlaws. Ophira Edut. 2nd ed. expanded and updated. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press, 2003. 219-224. Print.