Stranger #14

Stranger #14-

I need to start off by saying that I really appreciate Arcadia, and the people that I come into contact with here. For once, I'm actually not being sarcastic! As mentioned in one of my prior blogs, I'm here a lot, way too much sometimes! I'm here so often, which means that again, a good handful of my strangers may be students or someone affiliated with the school. The thing about Arcadia is, everyone that I approach from here, always has the same positive outlook about the project that I do. I always get really nice feedback from the strangers that I go up to here, and no one has refused to talk to me on campus, thus far. I may of spoke too soon, but it's really nice to hear. Although the rejection of people not wanting to have anything to do with me can be good sometimes (by that I mean, it really can test your strength and patience), but it's nice when it doesnt happen either.

Meet James. James is a transfer student who is now living on Arcadias Campus. He is a senior, pych major with a minor in education, and sociology. When he graduates he wants to study sex-therapy and eventually become a sex therapist. He stated that there are only two schools that offer this program, one being Widener, and another school out in California. James is involved with an internship, where he is actually working with the sociology/antropology/criminal justice department head, Ana Garcia on a project called "bettering queer climate on Arcadia's campus." The project looks at the language around the word "queer" and is trying to scope the language and context of how this word is used. He is also trying to get gender neutral bathrooms on campus.

James also openly admitted that he is a transgender. He has  a surgery scheduled for June 6th and has began to take hormones 8 months ago. The cost of the surgery is $6700 and he is still thinking of ways of how he is going to be able to pay for it. He may read this since he asked for the blog address, so goodluck, James!

Now, here's some food for thought. When I approached James, he was talking to two girls who were working behind the desk in the library. While we were talking, he told me when I went up to him, they were conversing about this question. "If you were paid $1000 every night to sleep with someone (I believe a different person every time) and you could control the situation, (meaning that you can have protected sex using a condom and/or birthcontrol, and were able to choose the person), would you do it?" Of course, my immediate response was absolutely not, because honestly, that's just not me, but as we started talking more, we went into how some individuals unfortunately could be desperate for money. People are in many different types of sad situations which would leave them with no better choice, and lets face it, it would be almost impossible to make that kind of money with any damn job or college degree! Some people may not even be in any situation, but would do it because of the amount of money. Even so, regardless of what I would do, or my opinion, to each is own. I know, totally random, but very interesting to say the least!