Mia

A person in my life that I view as a feminist icon is my cousin, Mia. Mia is four years older than me, so 21 years old, and has always been someone that I have looked up to in many different ways. I only have two cousins that I know, and she is the only girl, so I see her in a lot of ways as an older sister figure. Despite being so young, I think that Mia possesses a lot of talents that many people don’t gain until later in life. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from DePaul University, in three years, with her Bachelor’s in Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies and is now working part time as a legal assistant at an immigration law firm. Her work ethic is astonishing to me not because over the course of the past three years, she has been able to be so involved in her schoolwork and politics, while also having the time to come to family events, FaceTime me, and live a “typical” college life. In our FaceTime calls, Mia has really provided a lot of useful resources, information, and positive topics of discussion. I grew up in private schooling, so Mia was the first person that was open about her political beliefs in my family and didn’t shy away from conversations that I viewed as “uncomfortable”. 

I remember hearing when I was in middle school that she got the opportunity to go to marches and rallies and thinking that it was the coolest thing ever. She would show me the signs and pictures she had from them when I was in town. I remember another time when I was in middle school and she visited me and my brother. We were driving down Neil Street and there were some people with “Abortion is Murder” signs. Mia stuck her head out of the window and yelled “My body, my choice!”. Of course I was pro-choice, but that still seemed to be such a taboo thing to talk about to me. Honestly, even now it is difficult for me to express my political opinions, even when I know that they are rooted in equality and peace because of the indoctrination of such cruel beliefs that occurred all of my life. 

I saw a woman at the grocery market the other day with a shirt that said, “KEEP ABORTION LEGAL”. Despite wanting to tell her that I liked her shirt, I didn’t, still worried about what someone would think of me if they overheard that. Mia wouldn’t have done that, though. She wouldn’t be concerned about the opinions of others and would have just said that she liked the shirt. In many ways, this woman in the grocery store was a Mia, unapologetically expressing her beliefs. I’ve met many Mias in my life and will definitely meet many more. I hope that in the future I can become a Mia.