For HCBU x CAS Women’s Week, I wanted to pay tribute to the women who have either shaped my life or whom I have tried to shape my life after. Here are the six women who most deserve the credit in my eyes:
1. Michelle Obama
Credit: Forbes
If you read my recent review of Becoming, you probably could have guessed that I would put Michelle Obama on this list. Politics aside, I admire Michelle Obama for her strength of who she is as a person. By this, I mean she’s never afraid to admit when she’s not perfect and is also never afraid to reach for what she wants. Also, she never fails to roast Barack, which is both humorous and inspiring (ladies, take note).
2. Blair Waldorf
Credit: Whowhatwear
This may be a seemingly basic choice, but I was always for Blair over Serena: and not for her fashion choices or because I also loved Chuck Bass. Blair was a fierce individual who always knew what she wanted, when she wanted it, and how to get it done. There wasn’t an obstacle that could stand in her way, and her development over time from season two (when she was obsessed with being with Chuck) to season six (when she said she couldn’t be with him until they had both achieved their goals) is one I find refreshing in TV characters. My senior quote was actually a quote from her, which read “Destiny is for losers. It’s just an excuse for people to wait for something to happen instead of making it happen.”
3. Jackie Kennedy
Credit: Vanity Fair
In high school, whenever I was faced with having to make a decision regarding how to act in tough situations, I always used to make myself pause and ask, “Is this what Jackie Kennedy would do, or what Lindsay Lohan would do?” Not to say that there is anything inherently wrong with Lindsay Lohan, but the reputation of Jackie Kennedy has always been one similar to what I want to leave behind – classy, well-cultured, respectable, and intelligent.
4. Hillary Clinton
Credit: The Hill
Again, casting politics aside, no one can deny that Hillary Clinton is a powerful, intelligent woman, who never ceded her career to her husband’s. Up until he ran for Governor, she didn’t change her last name and even then, she refused to give it up completely. I read her autobiography in ninth grade, and it’s been one of the books at my bedside table ever since.
5. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
To anyone who’s been paying attention to the news recently, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a certified badass. In the past year alone, the woman has broken her hip and had tumor removal surgery, all while only missing one day of work in the Supreme Court. From her hospital bed, she listened to arguments and voted once she was deemed sufficiently off the pain pills. Not to mention, in her lifetime, Ginsburg was able to balance the incredibly hard tasks of being a mother and having a career, which if you ask any working mom, is probably one of life’s greatest challenges.
6. Mathilde Hupin
Credit: Maya Fajardo
Mathilde Hupin is a female orthopedic surgeon that I have had the privilege of getting to learn from on my volunteer service trips to Colombia. Surgery, especially orthopedics, is a male-dominated field, and getting the chance to observe and talk to Mathilde as she’s operating has given me so much determination to get to a place where I’m just as good as she is, because she’s shown me that it’s possible to get to a place like that at all.
And on that note, I’ll end with a quote everyone knows, but I still love:
Credit: Twitter, Anna Kennedy
All of these women and more have contributed to making me more confident and determined in my own life, which is why I chose to honor them for Women’s Week. I’d also like to just quickly credit all of my female family members, who have shown me the importance of being kind, being caring, and helped foster an environment where I never felt like I was any less than anyone else.
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