Do you remember when you were a child and you had so many ideas of what you would be like when you were an adult?
I dreamed I would be a singer, dancer, doctor, or astrophysicist. My short-term passions came and went, but there was always one thing that stuck around.
When I was seven years old, I read a book about where hamburgers go after we eat them. I learned about the digestive system, and I was deeply fascinated.
Later that year, I rented a human body book from the adult section of the library. Between the ages of 7 and 10 I rented that book regularly. I remember the first time I went through reading it. I couldn’t read well and mostly was looking at the pictures. Understanding the words I could read and asking my mom and grandpa a lot of questions. My favorite section of the book was about the human reproductive organs and reproduction. I was deeply fascinated by the human ability of pregnancy, not understanding that all animals reproduce. As I got a little bit older, I became more fascinated with psychology. I quickly realized that the psychology of human sexuality was so alluring to me, and I knew that I needed to be involved.
When I first arrived at college, my goal was to major in gender studies and psychology with the long-term goal of becoming a sex therapist. However, through further exploration, I have found my passion. I absolutely adore outreach work. If we fast-forward to now, I am a ground roots activist involved in many projects and organizations to further access and education for reproductive healthcare, sexual education of reproductive justice.
I am currently working with organizations, such as Advocates for Youth, Emergency Contraception for Every Campus, the Youth Abortion Support Collective, and ONE brand condoms. With the connections and support I have received from these organizations. I am able to work on projects that will make sex education, sexual health products, and healthcare access more equitable on my campus and in the surrounding community. As passionate as I am about these projects. I know that these are only short-term goals for me. As a student, I am studying women, gender, and sexuality studies (WGSS), public health, disability studies, and psychology. My majors and minors combined are going to help me reach my long-term goal of becoming a sex and intimacy coach. As passionate as I am about the activism work that I do, my original love and passion for human sexuality comes from the desire to help people feel empowered and educated in their bodies. To make choices regarding their lives and themselves that empower them. I want to be able to educate people about the principles of pleasure more than I want to educate people about the fundamental right to make decisions about our own reproductive futures. I’m deeply passionate about both of these topics, but I want to live in a world where I don’t have to advocate for the right to have access to abortion care, proper resources to raise a child, disability accessible buildings, transgender healthcare, or people living in fear of being harassed when out in public with their same-sex partner. I want to live in a world where I can focus on people finding pleasure in life and activities and not one where I have to educate people how to minagate violence when met with law enforcement. We should not be living in a world where people cannot afford to have the basic necessities or be afraid of the people who are meant to protect them.
With all of that being sad, as I continue to walk through this life, I will always carry a torch.
I may not always be a perfect leader, and I do not want to be placed on a pedestal, but I always want to advocate for people for not only my communities but other communities as well.
And in the long-term, I want to continue my advocacy work. I want to also be able to work one on one with people to find empowerment and pleasure within themselves and their own experiences. I have wanted to be a lot of things in this life, but nothing has made me feel more powerful than stepping into my own power and using it for good. Nothing has made me feel more powerful than the ability to help people navigate their journey in life with their bodies, with their sexuality, and their identity.
I am an artist, an advocate, a poet, a creator. I don’t believe that advocacy has one look. I am a disabled, queer/trans, empathetic individual who wants nothing more than to see the people around me stepping into their own power. That is why I will continue to be an activist today and every day.
I don’t know what life has in store for me. I don’t really know where I’m going in life, but I do know that wherever I end up, I want to be doing what I’m passionate about. If my passions change in 10 years that’s okay, but I wanna keep doing what I do, as long as I can, to help as many people as I can.
Xoxo- K. Phoenix