Slipping

I read the beginning because I felt that was a good place to start and also I was very unsure of how much I was supposed to read. I really liked how I could hear Jody's voice in the text. It was kind of like she was reading it to me in class. Which reminded me of our meeting where she told me that I need to write to my audience and make my papers more reader accessible. The content of the first chapter was also very interesting. The concept of "slipping" was introduced and it gave a name to something that I've experienced a lot back home. I'm from Texas, so like Jody I came up north and expected a whole new world. What I got was definitely different but not as foreign as I had originally anticipated. Back home people aren't as accepting, there are people who are very inclusive, but there isn't as big of a push as there is at Bryn Mawr. In middle school racist jokes were common, kids were segregated by race and intelligence, most LGBTQIA+ kids were bullied or out casted, and I sometimes found myself joining the crowd. I had a friend who came out to me as bisexual in 8^th grade and due to my ignorance at the time I didn’t understand what that meant. I made my share of gay jokes about him and didn’t realize until years later how that could’ve hurt him and how it did hurt him, but I was “slipping” into the social norms around me in order to feel included. “Slipping” does not excuse behavior, but it does explain it and gives people a way to understand their actions and how they can improve upon them. Today I am in the most accepting environment I’ve ever been in, but I still have to catch myself from repeating old mistakes.