Lucy's Thoughts

‘I’m going to America!’, I announced proudly with tears in my eyes. After years and years of dreaming of doing Camp America, I finally got my three-month working visa to work in a Summer Camp in the town of Medford, New Jersey. It was one of the happiest days of my life, and I spent the entire train journey from London back to my home town of Crawley, West Sussex, absolutely bawling to my dad about how my dreams had come true. After one failed attempt to get a visa in the early months of 2020, it felt as though doing Camp America would always be a fantasy, a ‘one-day’ dream. But after exiting the American Embassy in January 2022 I was already packing my bags for the summer of a lifetime.  Upon arrival to the United States in June, I met up with Maddie, another girl going to the same camp as me. We excitedly met at the baggage claim at JFK airport, as we picked up our heavy suitcases and got ready to make our excursion from New York to New Jersey. We took the subway into New York ...

“Until the killing of black mothers’ sons becomes as important as the killing of a white mother’s son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens” - Ella Baker, African American civil rights activist.  On the 25th of May, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police. ‘I can’t breathe!’ he shouted. ‘Don’t kill me!’. This sounds all too familiar to the last words of Eric Garner, strangled to death in July 2014 by members of the New York City Police Department. In August of 2014, Michael Brown was shot dead by a Ferguson police officer. Similarly, Ryan Twyman was fatally shot by Los Angeles police in June 2019. These are only a small handful of deaths African Americans have had to endure as a result of police brutality in the United States. Appallingly, roughly one in every thousand black males die in the hands of law enforcement and black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people. These statistics don’t even take into account ...

Shining a light on the dangers women face on a day to day basis.   Sexism. Feminism. Patriarchy. Three words that are thrown around, ridiculed by many and taken seriously by a disheartening lack of people. If you label yourself as a feminist, people assume you have radical anti-men ideals, when the reality couldn’t be further from that ignorant viewpoint. As a young woman myself, I stand by the fact that sexism still exists and the patriarchy is not as close to being abolished as it may appear in the United Kingdom. Yes, women have suffrage, there have been two female Prime Ministers and there are increasing numbers of women in managerial roles, all improvements that should be celebrated and acknowledged but there is far more beneath the surface, entrenched in society. Regardless of all these improvements, I still feel afraid to go on walks in broad daylight wearing shorts on a hot summers day and I feel untrustworthy of the authorities if I ever had to report a sexual assault...