Listen to a Black woman graduate student describe her journey toward prioritizing self has developed in school and during the pandemic. She reflects on how often she’s found herself apologizing for putting herself first because she prioritizes other’s feelings or needs. In this clip she comments on how often her white counterparts in school and work take time off and are able to completely “check out” of the world. Prioritizing self is a luxury that she, as a Black woman and graduate student, can’t afford sometimes. She’s had to learn to balance and negotiate while also refusing to explain herself, which is a practice in prioritizing.
I have so much to deal with and tend to that don’t even need to be explained to folks that still expect the same level of engagement and excitement and stellar A+ work in all of my investments in academia and the scholarship of it all… I am being pulled in so many directions right now and I only have control over half of a thing and even that feels precarious.
