SubscribeOriginally shared at walkoutwalkon.net
We often become walkouts long before we call ourselves walkouts. We make choices to walk out of systems, lifestyles, and beliefs that no longer serve us long before we understand ourselves as walkouts or find our new community. We do what we need to do unconsciously at first, not realizing the self-preserving choices we’ve made until later. Good choices happen just like bad choices—while we’re busy living our lives, sometimes without us noticing and almost always without us fully comprehending. At least this has been my experience.
When I think about how and when I became a walkout, I realize I’ve walked out of many things. I stopped placing value in my academic identity three semesters prior graduating from college. In my early 20s, I left a stable, in many ways great, job that didn’t engage me in order to start working on what I really cared about. Over time—and this is what’s been most meaningful—I’ve walked out of the idea of a traditional career path for a 20-something American woman with my general upbringing and background in the United States.