Six months ago when my Korean friend went home to Korea, she wrote me a letter. In that letter she said something that rings in my ears every time I counsel a girl. What she said was "Before I came to America I had pre-conceived notions about blond haired, blue eyed girls. But after I met you I began to see that girls are the same all over the world." I was reminded of this today more than ever. I met "Serena" and she was absolutely sure she wanted an abortion. After talking to one of the male counselors for a while, Serena seemed to be on the verge of leaving. After managing to shift Serena to a more private counseling area, she began to open up to me because she said "you're a woman". Much to my surprise, she began telling me a lot more about her situation than she had mentioned in the other room. She kept telling me that I couldn't understand her situation, and I agreed with her. I told her that a doctor may not understand a cancer patient's situation, but he still knows how to help. Again, she began opening up more and more to me. The reason my friend's letter stuck with me in particular during mine and Serena's conversation was because it's so true. Maybe I couldn't understand exactly how Serena felt, but I knew exactly how it felt to be a woman. This understanding goes a long way when working with these women. Because, deep down, all girls want the same things. To be loved, to be seen as beautiful, etc, etc. That is a huge part of what we do here at EMC: making sure women feel loved and beautiful. Well, because, they are!
This helped me grow as a counselor because I realized even further how much I am just like these women. Because no matter where we are from or where we are coming from or where we are headed, we are all the same.
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