I first met Megan Healy in my first year of college when she requested a room change from the third floor to the first floor of Trinity, our shared red brick, due to a knee injury, which placed her right across the hall from me into the room of one of my best friends. From the moment I met her, she exuded an openness about herself that instantly made me think, “Yeah. This chick is awesome.” It is the same with many others that she meets. Megan lives her life with a sense of openness and acceptance that makes you feel safe and easy around her, even inspired.
Her motto in a few words is to be open to new, exciting, and consensual experiences (and also to always wear sunscreen) which sums up the way she lives her life: adventurously but responsibly. This can be seen in the fact that she has 15 piercings and yet has never broken a bone.
In general, Megan is an interesting character. She not only avoids The Box, she breaks it. When I asked her if she had any crazy stories, she shamelessly confirmed that she did and went on to tell me that Burning Man in general is pretty crazy, but she had one in particular she wanted to share. The story she chose to tell me is not so scandalous as it would devalue her character but scandalous enough that I hesitate to put it into print out of consideration for our readership. For those of you want a hint, I will tell you that it involves her participating in something called a Cake Shake Chaser. (Don’t try to look it up on Urban Dictionary. The proper definition is not there.)
Megan is a very comfortable person, but more than that, she is caring. She’s more than happy to lend a listening ear and offer insightful advice whenever a friend is going through a rough time. If she so much as suspects that something is wrong, she is always sure to ask. You would know this if you ever visited her at the Health Center where she works with PULSE in the Educational Resources On Sexuality (EROS) division, where she offers counseling on sexual health as a peer health educator.
Already strongly opinionated about sex before she came to college, Megan was inspired to join this line of work when she first came to Cal Poly. “I got to college and was like, ‘Wow! All of these people are entering the hook-up culture and no one’s ever sat them down before to be like, “This is how you correctly put on a condom” and that scares me a lot.’” In addition to being in her fourth year of pursuing her bachelor’s in English, she is also double minoring in Spanish and Women’s and Gender Studies in hopes of becoming a Sexual Health educator. “The dream is to someday open up clinics like The Center on Grand.” She strongly believes that everyone should have access to educational material and treatment concerning sexual health.
But being a boss sexuality advocate isn’t all this girl cares about. She also loves slam poetry and does her best to perform as much as she can. She recently performed this past Februrary at Loverspeak, a fundraiser for Byzantium, reading some original work discussing the Tinder culture and, at the time of the interview, had a few more gigs scheduled. She is also helping lead the committee for Anthem, an event held every year where Cal Poly hosts professional Slam Poets, in addition to organizing separate events for student slam poetry readings.
Megan also loves the outdoors, and told me that she has hiked Half Dome in Yosemite three times, two of which she started at 11 o’clock at night so she could see the sun rise from the top in the morning. This inspired her to get Half Dome tattooed down her side. She is also an Activities Director at Berkley Echo Lake Camp during the summers where she leads groups of campers in fun and safe activities.
In short, Megan Healy is awesome in the form of a person. She is an activist, a writer, a supporter, an adventurer, but most importantly of all, she is a positive force in this world.