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About the "Coffee Talks" series
Through these refreshing posts (hopefully paired with your favorite caffeinated beverage), I share anecdotes, fun facts, and reflections from my life away from the classroom. So, imagine we are sharing a conversation over coffee (I’ll have an iced chai with oat milk) – you choose the place. I’ll provide the topic. I find comfort in rewatching the same shows (and movies) over and over. I am currently on my fifth rewatch of Gilmore Girls: a classic early 2000s rom-com, small-town, mother-daughter show filled with quirky but heartwarming characters with names like Suki and Kirk. Whenever I start the series again, I can't help but smile at the sight of a young Lauren Graham trying to order her sixth cup of coffee from the grumpy yet lovable Luke Danes.
The events follow a predictable sequence: first love, teenage arguments, graduations, poor decisions, making amends, and repeating the cycle. Quick banter and witty dialogue from the iconic duo (Lorelai and Rory) fill the hours, and I daydream of moving to a town with Babbette, Morey, and their gnome family as my next-door neighbors.
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A couple of days ago --after the encouragement from one of my classmates-- I reached out to my Instagram followers asking, "If you were to get coffee with me, what would you like to know?"
As much as I try to share balance between my work and life, you see only a glimpse of who I am outside of the classroom. So, here are my responses to a few questions I received! Let's share an (imaginary, yet still delicious) coffee. About this new series: "Coffee Talks"
Through these refreshing posts (hopefully paired with your favorite caffeinated beverage), I share anecdotes, fun facts, and reflections from my life away from the classroom. So, imagine we are sharing a conversation over coffee (I’ll have an iced chai with oat milk) – you choose the place. What would you like to know? 
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This year, the typically joyful and celebratory exclamation, "Happy Pride!" is shouted with a somber, apprehensive tone. A month that began as a commemoration of the Stonewall riots has always been a month of celebration of queer and trans love, self-expression, and identity. However, this Pride month reminds us --LGTBQ+ people and allies-- that the first was a riot: a fight for queer and trans liberation.
Every day, trans and queer lives are threatened by proposed legislation which attacks access to gender-affirming health care, eliminates LGBTQ+ history and people from literature and curriculum, and strives to silence queer and trans expression and voice. The history of the LGBTQ+ movement, including Stonewall, continues to be whitewashed and misrepresented in the mainstream media. The past few years mark an epidemic of violence against queer and trans people. In 2023 alone, over 500 anti-trans bills have been proposed in the United States; twenty-seven of those proposed bills are federal. These bills target not just trans folks' access to health care but also gender affirmation through pronouns, birth certificates, and driver's licenses; participation in athletics; expression through drag; and representation through storylines, history, and literature in schools. The following are statistics from the Trans Legislation Tracker regarding these bills: "2023 marks the fourth consecutive record-breaking year for anti-trans legislation in the U.S. In just one month, the U.S. doubled the number of anti-trans bills being considered across the country from the previous year. (para. 6)" Hate speech, violent threats, and derogatory language are rampant in comment sections, news articles, and in daily interactions. Homophobic, racist, and transphobic politicians, school board members, and legislators spread messages defying the basic human rights of queer and trans people. In a cis-heteronormative society, LGTBQ+ people and content creators fight to simply survive and exist as their true, authentic, nuanced, beautiful selves. Many use their platforms to protest, share resources, and be a light for their community: (often) uncompensated labor to amplify their voice. The LGBTQ+ community experiences threats, hate, and violence 365 days per year. Pride month is a necessary call to action and protest as well as a celebration. Queer, and especially trans, folks have the right to define their personal celebration and/or observance of Pride. On the other hand, allies to the community must step up --although we must engage in year-round committed action-- in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. For systemic hate and legislation to end, folks within and outside the community must take measurable action and SPEAK UP! Change, specifically systemic change, does not occur through sharing Instagram posts, wearing rainbow, or contributing to corporate rainbow washing. Change does not occur by "playing it safe" or standing to the side in a terrorizing wave of aggression against the LGBTQ+ community. Change occurs through hard work, perseverance, protesting, education, difficult conversations (yes, with family and friends too!), self-reflection and criticism, and mistakes. Straight, cisgender, white people must use their privilege and voice to speak in rooms where queer and trans voices are excluded and silenced. As trans content creator and actor James Rose states, "Cis-het folks started this, so y'all have to end it." 
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A couple of weeks have passed since my most recent existential crisis. And in those fourteen (or so) days, I noticed a lack of motivation and creativity; I entered the post-existential crisis enervation or fatigue. I trudged through a busy schedule to balance work and social events before my friends' impending farewells. These simultaneous battles for normalcy and against change left little mental space for spontaneous creativity.
Instead, I spent my free time outside and watching comfort movies on my soft bed with the twinkle lights on – my go-to comfort activities that usually guarantee a moment of quiet in an otherwise fast-paced world. I am surprised at my struggle to find the motivation to write and reflect during this existential crisis. Usually, writing is my release, but this time, the thought of sorting through my mixed feelings around continuously sudden change felt burdensome. As a person who prides herself on finding (and often, creating out of necessity) motivation, I had none. As I am writing this post, the words still flow less smoothly than before graduation -- perhaps due to the absence of deadlines, predictability, and milestones. Before, writing seamlessly fit in when I needed a liberating creative outlet, but I now perceive it as work in the absence of required tasks. Time is no longer measured by deadlines, meetings, or graduation. I rely solely on hours, days, and weeks, which seem to go by much quicker than I expected. (Wait, what’s the date again?). (I plan to investigate the reasoning behind my faltering intrinsic motivation, but that is a mission for my personal journal.) Therefore, to reignite my intuitive writing spirit (and to add structure to the foreseeable future), I will share a few updates from the past weeks. |
AuthorMeghan Hesterman (she/her) is an aspiring educator, storyteller, and traveler. Through regular posts and commentary, she candidly reflects on her evolution as an educator and young adult. Categories
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