Meet Our New Intern: Rachel Mekdeci

The first time I was ever a spiteful feminist was at the ripe age of 6, rushing to the water fountain after a taxing round of tag. Like all school girls are wont to do, we had been screaming with delight. A teacher rounded the corner and stuck up her nose at me. She pointed a finger at my eyes and said “Young ladies must be seen and not heard.” Reader, I have no explanation for what left my mouth next. I do not know how that little girl knew just what to say in that moment. All I know is that I said the next thing that came to my head: “Thank God I’m not a lady.”

It’s a funny story, one that I love to tell to unwilling houseguests. When a new friend finally asks “Rachel, what radicalized you?”, I tell them it was a game of tag. That isn’t true. What radicalized me was a history class. It was learning about dowries. It was watching movies. It was that black hole that opened in my stomach in 2015 when the newspaper headlines said there was oil miles off of the beach in front of my home. The tag story is a sweeter pill to swallow.

It was my very own radicalization that led to my hunger for knowledge. Once I could connect the dots, that star of capitalism and the constellation of its damage, I had to know more. I turned to the greats, hooks and Lorde and Butler and Spillers, and prayed over their words. After discovering my own queerness in my childhood, these essays soothed aching wounds yet ripped open some new. I knew I wanted to fix this ugly system, but I didn’t know how. It took many years of soul-searching and wrong choices to discover the best way for me to heal this world. I landed on a simple philosophy. I must learn in order to share.

Knowledge is power, yes, but because you then have the power to disseminate it. I must pour over these words, fiction and fact, so I can carry it forward. This is how I have ended up where I am now: determined senior in English Lit fighting tooth and nail to get accepted to a grad school where I can study queer literature (with an intersectional lens!) to my heart’s content. I dream of ‘Dr.’ attached to my last name, a comfortable office, and classrooms full of minds that need some learning. That is the legacy I want to leave.

I know this is not the usual thing one discusses when asked to introduce themselves, but I could not find a way around it. This, all of this, is who I am. I am a thinker before I am anything else, and I cannot help but to think of the state of the world. If I did nothing, I don’t think I could survive. This is how I do something, as little or huge of a change it might leave.

You’ve now met one of the new interns, but not really. I have written a great deal about one singular facet of my life. I am pleased to report that I am, in fact, a well-rounded individual with many hobbies, favorite foods, and a great deal of dislikes. That is not important. One thing about me is that I view every single moment as an opportunity to learn something new. I wanted this post to help somebody learn. I hope that you have learned one thing above all else:

Don’t do nothing. Please do something.

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