Entering Agnes Scott College I was on a path to major in Biochemical Engineering. Fast forward two years and now I am on track to graduate with a degree in Women’s Studies. For many, changing majors is a natural part of their academic career, but others often ask how I ended up where I am at. Notedly, there is one major factor in who I am today and her name is Lauran Whitworth.
Meeting over the summer with my SUMMIT advisor to pick classes was every bit anxious energy and unequivocal joy. I had spent the last year working under a Scottie at a biomedical engineering company and I was eager to finally understand the work I had been doing. By my advisor’s suggestion, I registered for Introduction to Queer Studies to balance out my STEM courses. Terrified at first at the thought someone back home might learn that I was taking a class with “queer” in the title, I quickly grew to love the course.
On the first day, surrounded by more out LGBTQ people than I had ever known, the professor entered the room. Her Seaside mug and checkered bowtie would soon become a familiar sight. Sharing her own stories, Dr. Whitworth was authentic. Our class cried, laughed, questioned. Queer studies marked the first time in my life that I had seen a queer person in a place of success.
I might not have thought I was such an odd child and experienced such body dysphoria if I had understood that there were queer individuals in the world. Through Dr. Whitworth living her truth, she encouraged me to live my own and to be honest with myself. As I entered college, I kept a vast majority of my identity hidden and failed to venture out into more queer orientated spaces. Now, I can say I am actively engaging in protests, organizing educational programming, and slowly discovering what I want to do in the world.
Before queer studies, I would have never considered the greater impact of women or gender studies. Dr. Whitworth has shaped and challenged by ideas of the world and influenced me forever as a student. For that, I am forever indebted. The best word to embody what she has done for me is hope. She has given me hope that I can be successful as a queer person, an academic, and as an activist. It never ceases to amaze me how educators have impacted my life and I can gladly say that she has made her way onto the list of my greatest influences.
As a result, I changed my major. Sure, giving up what would most likely be job security, financial stability, and societal acceptance of my field of study weighed heavy on me, but I am trying to be the person I needed when was younger. Women’s Studies, for me, has become synonymous to a single word from the Druid path-Awen. Awen, is an awareness, not just on a physical and mental level but on a soul-deep level – an awareness of the entirety of existence, of life itself. It is seeing the threads that connect us all. It is the deep well of inspiration that we drink from, to nurture our souls and our world and to give back in joy, in reverence, in wild abandonment, and in a solemn ceremony.
tags: SUM 8; SUM 9
