Self Care Club Experiement

Previously, I researched and went in depth on why my topic of body positivity was important. I cited multiple sources and found how misunderstood the body positivity movement is. I said I hoped to clear misconceptions and impact the body positivity community positively.

Since that post, I’ve dug deeper into how I can impact the community with my knowledge. My English teacher sparked an idea to my twin sister, Gina, saying creating a club can be helpful to the school community. She brought up the idea to me and we decided to collaborate on the club idea. Her topic was suicide and mine is body positivity so we decided to make our club focus on self care. Our club is called You & Me Club. First, I decided to do some research on support groups and how being in a support group can be beneficial. In the article, ‘How to Choose the Right Support Group’ by Mayo Clinic, it gives both perspectives on why support groups are good and bad. It allows people to be able to lean on people who experience similar problems. Support groups can also be used as a sense of motivation to go through a journey with others; it makes people feel less alone.“A support group among people with shared experiences may function as a bridge between medical and emotional needs.” It can be hard to trust a doctor so finding people in the patient’s age range going through similar problems can help the patient open up more. There are also cons to every pro. It may be possible that people may compare themselves to each other. For example, degrade their problems and tell themselves that others have it worse. I believe the pros outweigh the cons. Being with a group of people who already have something in common with you can be a good ice breaker. I believe support groups build a family and the bond is strong. Even though there are cons, it can always be fixed. To my example, people in the support group can make it known that it’s not a competition if we are all on the same team.

Group of people counseling together

Based on the information I gathered from my research, I think creating a club in the SLA community can be beneficial to students - and teachers if they like to attend. In order to start a club in SLA, I have to make a proposal to the principal, Mr.Lehmann and the program manager, Mr.Spry. Me and Gina spent a few days working on a google slide as our proposal. After completing the proposal slides, we started drafting the email. Here is the email:

“Good Morning Mr. Lehmann and Mr. Spry,

We are Gina and Tina Zou, freshmen here at SLA. Recently we have been working hard with Ms. Giknis and our advisors to plan a self care club! As new additions to the SLA community, we hope to make a positive influence in our time here by starting a club that allows students to learn more about themselves and their mental health. We would like to propose this club idea to you, so please click on this link to view our proposal.

We hope to receive approval to launch this club next year (2021-2022). If there are any questions, feel free to ask! We will try to answer them as detailed as possible.

Thank you for your time and consideration, Gina Zou & Tina Zou”

In addition, we decided to create an interest form to put in the advisory memo to help give a sense on what best fits for the community. After two minutes of just sending the proposal email, we got a reply! Our club accepted to open next year. It may be a slow process but I believe it will pay off in the long run. Creating a self care club for the community can boost people’s awareness on mental and emotional health. Our objective for our club is “You & Me Club seeks to create a safe environment to talk about emotions and mental hardships. It is important to care for mental health. So You & Me Club hopes to increase awareness of mental and emotional exhaustion and prevent people from blocking out their feelings any longer. This club will hopefully positively affect the SLA community and bring us closer together.” Even though this change will be slow but steady, hopefully it helps people.

I really enjoyed doing this project. Even though the club is starting in the school year of 2021-2022, I already know it’s going to make me step out of my comfort zone. I technically already did since I committed to this club. I hope the club succeeds. I didn’t realize how toxic people can be when they are uneducated or misinterpret something. Looking into plus-size activists really made me frustrated when people are so fast to judge. I felt as though I could’ve spent more time researching for the Agent of Change part. I think my research was enough to pass but I knew I could’ve done more. I do know I will continue to learn how to conduct a club to its fullest potential. I still need to wait for the club to launch next year. I hope people will join to help themselves and others. If you are interested, please do fill out this form so we can include what you like in the club. We hope to see you next year in our meetings:)

Annotated Bibliography