To The Others

            I was raised very conservatively, raised to believe in working hard for what you get and that nothing in life is given to us for free.

            At 16, I got my first job at Edible Arrangements and from then on I’ve held a job ever since.

            Now, at 23-years-old, I hold down 4 different jobs as I finish out my college education. I still hold some of the values that I was raised with, but over the years I’ve developed my own thoughts and opinions that are neither strictly conservative nor liberal.

            I would call myself a feminist because I believe women are equal to men and should have the same rights that everyone else has, believe in standing up and making our voice heard and I will always be thankful for the women who fought so hard to get us to where we are today.

I consider myself to be a strong, independent woman who is self-sufficient – a woman with goals for the future – and one goal is to someday be a wife and mother.

            Lately, the word “feminist” has become skewed. I have felt many a time degraded, by other women, when I tell them that I WANT to get married and have a family one-day.

            I’m not striving to be June Cleaver by any means (although I do love to wear dresses and pearls from time-to-time;) I won’t be sitting at home with the kids all day, waiting until my husband comes home to serve him dinner.

            However, the idea of waking up next to the man I love every day and one day creating a life that has my eyes and his nose makes my heart flutter.

            I also dream of traveling the world and soaking up all the culture I can in one lifetime, I dream of having my own photography studio and freelancing with photography for magazines and papers. I have dreams, goals and aspirations – and yes, being a wife is one of them.

            Being a feminist means many things for many different women. For some, it’s actively fighting for rights, or going after your dreams and achieving them because you have the freedom to do so, or maybe for others it’s raising a son to believe that women are to be treated as equals and with respect or a teaching a daughter to grow up realizing she can do whatever it is she sets her mind to.

            So, here’s to the others: to the feminists who feel like their voice isn’t heard because your opinions may differ, to those who make a difference in their own way. The war is not over, but we’ve come a long way and will continue.

Final Story Progress

Since the final story is right around the corner, here's a short update on my progress.

So far I have had an interview with Marshall University's interim president, Gary White, that went very well. The interview lasted about 20 minutes and I left feeling like I had good material to work with. I'm going to contact student body president Duncan Waughaman as well as former interim president Alan Gould about setting up interviews this week or next week to finish my story. 

Stay tuned. :)

Consumer Fraud

04/06/15

JMC 414

Consumer Fraud, ch. 9

Since chapter 9 focuses on consumer fraud and ways to deal with being a victim of this matter, we shared personal experiences of our own during class.

The one instance I can think of where I was subjected to consumer fraud was when I was around 16-years-old.

Since I had an after-school job, I had a debit card where I kept some of my money from paychecks so I could order things online. Well, one morning while I was at home I saw a commercial for a 10-minute palates workout DVD that was supposed to tone your abs in about 7 weeks.

Of course I decided the best decision would be to order this for $19.95 + shipping & handling, so I did. The DVD came and I started using it every day (which, obviously being a 10-minute a day "workout" did not actually tone my abs.)

A little over a month after I received the DVD and was charged the $19.95 + shipping & handling to my account, I received another statement from the bank telling me my account had been overdrawn. I checked into it and saw that the company whom I had ordered the DVD from continued to charge me another amount the following month, but this time the charge was double. They charged me one more time after that before I was able to get it cancelled.

Apparently, when ordering the DVD you automatically sign up as a member and are charged monthly fees. However, the infomercial did not make this clear and neither did the website during the time of purchase.

I never received my money back, but I did learn not to trust any sale without reading the fine print first.

If I had known what I know now, I would have reported them to the Better Business Bureau as well as fought harder to get my money back.