Monday, March 17, 2014

Day 1.

Today has been filled with events.  Waking up, frantically packing, rushing to campus, riding the charter bus, great lunch discussions, arriving in Memphis, touring Rhodes campus, eating Memphis BBQ, meeting a Memphis native and hearing him speak about the history of Memphis and finishing up the day with a light discussion about the social change model.  My body is tired but my mind is racing a million miles a minute.  It's strange because for me I came to this trip with a certain amount of understanding of how I wanted it to play out.  However, immediately I found myself being shifted from how I was going to impact others and help others view social justice to how I was going to learn more about myself and this impossible to fully grasp and put into words thing called "privilege."  I am familiar with the term and have gone as far to attend an event with Tim Wise speaking about just that, privilege. However, acknowledging your privilege comes at you in small doses, at least for me it has.  I know that I'm white and I have accepted several of the privileges that have came to me because of it.  I currently find myself longing for more than just the superficial meaning of the word.  I want to know how my privileges impact my life day to day, moment to moment from decision to decision.  I am beginning to understand that even the choices I have made and continue to make are developed through my privilege.  Someone or some people rather had to devote the time to teach how and what decisions to make and when to make them.  Other people haven't been granted that same opportunity.  I hope to gain further clarity of the magnitude of impact privilege has in my life.   I also want to ensure that I don't begin view my privilege as a negative but more so as a way to humble myself.  I am lucky to be granted these opportunities and so with that this cheesy but relevant quote, "with great power [opportunity] comes great responsibility."  Above all, I would like to learn how to best utilize my opportunities to serve others that were not granted the same privileges.  Excited doesn't come close to explaining my feelings about this trip.  Bring on day 2!

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