So, why have I decided to do this? Well, to be cliché, it kind of is a long story. But I’ll try my best to be concise.
So, I guess I’ll have to start with my interest in human rights. I honestly have no idea how I came to be so passionate about social justice and the like. One of my first memories was going to the Philippines when I was around 7 or 8, and just seeing how different the lifestyle was over there. I remember one particular night when my great-aunt took me and my brother to Mcdonald's and I saw 2 kids looking in through the window as we ate. When we walked outside, they stretched out their hands wordlessly and my great-aunt dropped a couple of coins into them. I thought that it was so weird, bizarre, out of place for kids to be asking for money. I remember thinking to myself, where is their mother? I didn't really understand it back then.
I also remember reading a book in grade 5 called When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, and that’s when I learned about the horrors of World War 2. I think a year later I learned about Free the Children and child soldiers, because a girl came to my school to give a speech about that. I’m pretty good at imagining stories happening while they’re being told, so the actions of rebel soldiers in Sierra Leone cutting the limbs off of people, of putting cocaine in their wounds, and forcing children to become soldiers (killers!)… that was pretty shocking to me. These are just two instances in which I learned about the injustices in the world and the desire to make things right, but there was no defining, ah ha! moment of realization that I should be fighting for human rights.
I also remember reading a book in grade 5 called When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, and that’s when I learned about the horrors of World War 2. I think a year later I learned about Free the Children and child soldiers, because a girl came to my school to give a speech about that. I’m pretty good at imagining stories happening while they’re being told, so the actions of rebel soldiers in Sierra Leone cutting the limbs off of people, of putting cocaine in their wounds, and forcing children to become soldiers (killers!)… that was pretty shocking to me. These are just two instances in which I learned about the injustices in the world and the desire to make things right, but there was no defining, ah ha! moment of realization that I should be fighting for human rights.
When I was in high school, I joined the human rights club (formerly Amnesty International, but since my school was Catholic and Amnesty supported abortion – though in specific cases – we had to form our own club). I was the secretary and then the president of the club, and I gotta say, our human rights club was a huge part of my high school life. People saw me as a dedicated, passionate, caring person and I loved that. I suppose it was kind of nice to be labelled as that girl instead of just a nerd/Asian. :P
Our club did a lot, and I loved being active in it. I actually taught members how to write letters to politicians about injustices happening in their country. We also wrote petitions and gathered signatures. Our announcements informed the school community about human rights issues. We raised money through bake sales and candy grams. We donated clothes, equipment and other items. We had t-shirts and a freakin’ button maker! Yeah, I thought we were pretty boss. One thing I loved about the club was that we started the annual tradition of a Rock Out for Rights concert in the spring. We had people audition with songs about human rights and social justice and they performed during lunch, which was perfect because the student council usually had the barbeque then. We’d have petitions going around as well as free buttons, and everybody always enjoyed it.
Well anyway, after that, I started university. Everybody had these expectations of me to be great, because I could only go up from there, right? Well, the transition for me was hard. I was sad to see my friends scattered across the province, the country and the world. I was nervous and scared of entering unchartered territory and starting all over again. I didn’t think the transition would be that bad, but I was wrong. I was enrolled in international studies, which I thought (along with everybody else) was perfect for me. But as life turns out, what you choose for yourself isn’t always the best thing for yourself.
I thought that international studies was about human rights and stuff like that. I expected something social and cultural, but instead I got politics and old, dead white men. Blergh. The one class I had for that subject was terrifying: the work, the readings, the prof, and the class itself were all intimidating. Reading shit like that made my head spin. And actually discussing and debating it in class? Forget about it! I never spoke up and tried my best to make my notes comprehensible.
What was the class about, you may ask? Well, it was called International Society: History, Philosophy and Theories. You get the history of the world (political and economic systems, basically, in the context of over-proud men trying to take over the world). You get the philosophies that have shaped the minds of these over-proud men (which then trickled down to the citizens themselves) and thus these political and economic systems. You get the theories derived from these philosophies that have thus shaped these people and these systems even more. Yes, it was interesting, but I’m not sure if I’m going to refer to what I learned in this class in the future. I mean, it really is an excellent course to take if you want to work for the UN or international politics and economy. But that’s not me.
That’s what I realized 4 months into my first year at university. I can definitely save the world, but not through the means that I thought were the most obvious. I don’t have to work for the UN if I want to help others. I can’t believe I was so narrow-minded to believe that I wanted to take a course called The Philosophy of Law (my most hated class, because it was boring and I got a C – which, by the way, is unheard of for someone like me, and I mean this in the humblest way possible).
I was also rethinking my priorities in life. I thought, going into university, that my life would now be super serious, forward-thinking and wrapped around my future career. Which put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself. I mean, I was 18! Shouldn’t I be worried about going to parties and meeting guys and stuff like that? Well, I kind of was. But not as much as I think I should have. What I mean to say is that I should have focused more on the social aspect of myself instead of worrying about my future career. Because honestly, looking back, the social aspect of university/college life is the most important.
And speaking of social, I changed my major to sociology less than 3 months after I started school. I wasn’t expecting for that to happen, but that’s how life works. I was taking a sociology course called Religion and Society as an elective, but I loved the class! It was my favourite because of the atmosphere, the material and the prof. So yeah, after that one taste, I got hooked onto sociology.
For me, sociology deals with human rights at a level that we can understand more than international studies. I mean, we can understand social classes and division and how we categorize ourselves, which leads to conflict. But we all can’t understand how international society and the different nations and states dictate how we lead our lives. That can get too complicated. There are a boatload of other reasons why I love having sociology as my major, but I won’t get into them. The big thing here is that with that change, I began to see things differently.
