Rocio´s blog

He advice I would give to a high school student is to wait the necessary time to decide what they want to do with their life. Many times, due to social pressure they enter a career and as time goes by they feel tired or bored, putting their mental health at risk. On the other hand, I would tell them that college is not the only path they can choose. Not all people are made for the same thing, there are other alternatives, and none has more value than another, they are just different ways of life. In my experience, I took a sabbatical year and it is the best decision I have ever made in my life. It was a year where I discovered myself, got to know what I liked, rested and learned to cook, something I had never done before and I loved it! It was a break from the routine that we have had since we were 4 years old, where I was able to recharge my batteries for everything that a university career entails, since we have always been told that it is something very difficult. And lastly, ...

  Religion has been a difficult topic in some stages of my life. As I said in the first post, I was in a Catholic school since I was four years old. My parents formed me under that religion because according to them it was the right thing to do. My grandfather was a deacon in the church, and he was the one who baptized me and made me grow up in that environment. However, as I grew up, I stopped feeling comfortable. The moment when I felt the break was when I defined my sexuality, and I was rejected by my family and school. I felt very lonely during that time because of that situation, I distanced myself from many important people because the religion made them think differently. At school I had many talks about my sexuality and to know if I was sure about it. The school authorities asked my girlfriend and me not to be together at school because the boys or the nuns could see us. For this reason, I rejected religion for a long time, because it did not allow me to love freely. ...

  Our country's health service is not efficient. Although there is a mixed system to provide care, both the public and private systems do not provide enough tools to meet the needs of all Chileans. The authorities say that they have a decentralized organization, but in the southern part of the country they always have to resort to transfers because there are not enough professionals in hospitals and clinics. On the other hand, the emergency service is always collapsed and you have to wait for hours to be attended, especially in the early morning. Waiting lists are very long for all exams in the public system and in the private system the costs are quite high, so only a very small sector of the population has access to them. This is why many people fail to get timely care or simply choose not to do so, as it is an expense they cannot afford. This also includes mental health, which is a privilege to be able to obtain since the public options are limited sessions that are not enough...

  Ever since I was four to eighteen years old, I attended the same catholic school leaded by nuns. I had my very first approaches to politics on my own (aside from discussions my family used to have), since according to my school, everything was okay in the country (Chile). When I was in last year of school, the protests made me lose my fear of sharing my opinion in this institution, and even though me and my classmates knew about the consequences, we still organized ourselves to attend them. Since then, my political opinion has not stopped growing and evolving. I try to participate as much as I can in areas of my interest just like the feminist struggle and sexual diversity. For this I try to inform myself, study and share what I learn with my close ones, so that they can also learn. This opens up a discussion about these issues and so we can share different points of view. I always try not to belittle anyone because of their opinions: I understand that we all come from diff...