I've always thought of myself as a leader. I've always sought out leadership positions because I enjoy being up front, directing people, and influencing what happens. But when I think about whether or not I am someone who can direct change, I am not so sure what I think.
Although I like leading, I can't think of a time when I have truly recognized a problem that I wished to address and dedicate myself to fixing. I definitely believe that I am the kind of person who could direct change if I really set my sights on an objective because I am assertive, passionate, and am not afraid to speak up. However, I often have a hard time with the idea that something takes a long time to see results, I like immediate gratification and depending on the issue, I might get frustrated and move on to something else. So yes, I believe that I can be an agent of change given an issue that I am passionate about and motivated to stick with.
One issue that I am extremely passionate about and one that I would like to work on within the PHA community is the poor body image that permeates the sorority atmospheres. I feel that it is overwhelming how many of us struggle with body image and eating disorders, and I don't feel that the food choices within the houses help us any. Often, girls gain weight when living in their sorority houses because they lack the option of healthier food choices. When they realize they have gained weight, they either freak out and stop eating or just develop a very negative body image. I think it should really be a top priority to improve the food quality and health in the houses.
Aside from the problems with the actual food choices, I think girls in a sorority are very influenced by the attitudes of the girls within their own chapters, and a negative body image and relationship with food is very contagious. I believe with an issue like this, my group could try to strive to spread the word about healthy relationships with oneself, and to try and be role models in healthy self image to the rest of the community. I know that this is something that is easier said than done because we all struggle with this issue in our own way, but given the time and effort, I believe a different attitude could begin to spread around to other girls and change could happen over time.
I don't know if I answered this question correctly, but I think that to be an agent of change one must feel connected and passionate about their cause, and this is the type of issue that would definitly inspire me to become an agent of change.
By becoming inspired with a cause and bringing in girls from my own group to work on this, people within my group would be able to dedicate themselves to the cause and hopefully begin to really change themselves. Hopefully the idea would spread from us to others and bring other women on board who would continue to spread the positivity and combat negative body image within the community. Its all about starting small and slowly spreading out to others.
