"The Opt-Out Revolution" by Lisa Belkin
It's funny to read both this and "Reviving Ophelia" in the same week because they are what I'm stuck between, figuring out who I am and what I'll do with a degree... and then what I'll decide in regards to having a family. My aunt is the only person I know who has decided to quit or very high level marketing job to have children, she lives in Austin and I'm so proud of her, but it seems to far from a decision I'll ever have to make. I already know the advantages of my writing degree are that I have flexibility in the freelance world and if I want to write novels a lot of that can be done from home, but how do I get anyone to read my work. I want my children to know they can not just have successful jobs in a financial sense, but fulfilling in an emotional sense. The further I'm getting in this course the more I also want to help other women. I have another aunt whose on welfare whose significant other robbed a bank and left her with three daughters, the oldest of whom is making choices that lead her to early sexuality and apathy towards education. There is just too much.
"Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Modern State of Motherhood"
While this brings light to a lot of issues I've had to question it comes down to basic choice. Where does a woman's ambition lie-- in the raising of children or the development of a career. My sister recently found out she was pregnant and is due in January. Due to some different choices she and I are both in the first semester's of our junior year, her at OSU Tulsa, myself here at OU. Comparing the choices we made when we found out we were pregnant is the backbone of the beginning of this issue. Whether or not she will finish her degree and when she does whether she'll be able to pursue a career in that feild are much larger question marks now that she will have a child in tow. I made the choice not to have a baby and to continue my education, which I feel puts a lot more pressure on me to succeed because I sacraficed a life for this. I always thought I'd be a "working Mom", but the older I get the more I hope I'm in a position to stay home when I begin my family. I don't feel that I missed anything having spent my childhood in dare-cares, but I wonder if my mom feels as if she did. I know she's proud that she kept us in clothes and fed, but I wonder if some of her pressure on my sister and I to give her grandchildren is the sense of a void because she didn't get to see a lot of our early years. More questions *sigh*
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