Dear Followers,
This week I volunteered at HATCH. HATCH is a weekly meeting for adolescents to come together an talk about their problems. Specifically, HATCH stands for HATCH is dedicated to empowering Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (GLBTQ) adolescents, ages 13-20, to become responsible citizens and positive contributors to society by providing a safe, affirming social environment for GLBTQ youth, offering role models and peer support, providing education on health issues such as HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI's) drug and alcohol abuse and suicide prevention, and hosting a variety of helpful and affirming programs for GLBTQ youth. I thought it was really interesting to see the types of things people my age and younger deal with on a daily basis. This provided a lot of insight to what we need to improve on within our society. It is really crazy how wrapped up you can be with all you are doing in your life for a moment in time, but when you see people dealing with harder issues, especially younger than you, it really puts your life into perspective. I may be dealing with my own daily life stresses such as classes, work, and graduate school applications, but all these seem minuscule when compared to bullying, HIV, and their own self esteem. It breaks my heart that people with another sexual orientation have to put up with so much. Like seriously, are we stuck in the middle ages? And, what country do we live in? It really bothers me that these issues are not in the forefront of political issues. And even if they are, people are so worried about how it affects them, rather than how it affects the people of different sexual orientation. We are in the midst of a very important election and I believe that people should be as informed as they can in order to choose a political candidate. Honestly, at first, before I came to volunteer at this clinic, I had no idea of how pervasive these issues were throughout society. But just volunteering here for barely a month has put a lot in perspective. That's why I strongly urge that people get involved with their community before they engage in politics, you must truly know all sides to the issue.
Thanks for reading!
Nadine Obeid
This week I volunteered at HATCH. HATCH is a weekly meeting for adolescents to come together an talk about their problems. Specifically, HATCH stands for HATCH is dedicated to empowering Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (GLBTQ) adolescents, ages 13-20, to become responsible citizens and positive contributors to society by providing a safe, affirming social environment for GLBTQ youth, offering role models and peer support, providing education on health issues such as HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI's) drug and alcohol abuse and suicide prevention, and hosting a variety of helpful and affirming programs for GLBTQ youth. I thought it was really interesting to see the types of things people my age and younger deal with on a daily basis. This provided a lot of insight to what we need to improve on within our society. It is really crazy how wrapped up you can be with all you are doing in your life for a moment in time, but when you see people dealing with harder issues, especially younger than you, it really puts your life into perspective. I may be dealing with my own daily life stresses such as classes, work, and graduate school applications, but all these seem minuscule when compared to bullying, HIV, and their own self esteem. It breaks my heart that people with another sexual orientation have to put up with so much. Like seriously, are we stuck in the middle ages? And, what country do we live in? It really bothers me that these issues are not in the forefront of political issues. And even if they are, people are so worried about how it affects them, rather than how it affects the people of different sexual orientation. We are in the midst of a very important election and I believe that people should be as informed as they can in order to choose a political candidate. Honestly, at first, before I came to volunteer at this clinic, I had no idea of how pervasive these issues were throughout society. But just volunteering here for barely a month has put a lot in perspective. That's why I strongly urge that people get involved with their community before they engage in politics, you must truly know all sides to the issue.
Thanks for reading!
Nadine Obeid
Here here Nadine. I'm very glad you are at MCC! You are seeing another side of life that is much more difficult. You are doing a great service helping these kids.
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