The Legacy Project: Rachel Greenberg
When I started this project, I had Rachel in mind when I thought of those I was most excited to hear from. Some time in now, The Legacy Project has given me many gifts—chief among them the realization that I am extremely lucky to have been touched by so many great, diverse people in my life. Rachel Greenberg is one such person.
Just as she has impacted my life immensely, she will doubtlessly do the same for plenty of others—often faceless, nameless others — in need. Her willingness to dive deep into the minutiae of the issues that plague women worldwide is a hefty undertaking, to say the least. Thankfully, someone’s doing it though and I know that I have a live women’s reproductive health encyclopedia handy, should I ever need it.
What throws so many people off about the D.C. “wonks” in government or nonprofit work is that they become so involved in their subject matter, they often act with an air of self-importance, glossing over their day-to-day interactions in favor of more crucial issues. For that reason, I believe it’s difficult for vital messages about social justice to really stick.
While Rachel’s steadfast commitment to improving women’s reproductive health outcomes/rights/accessibility shines through in most everything she does, she knows that sticking it to the man** doesn’t preclude her from giving others the dignity they deserve on a micro level. When I asked Rachel how she’d like to be remembered, she gave a very thoughtful answer.
“I want to be remembered for how I treat people. I try to lead my life with a sense of kindness and justice. I hope that I make people feel good and valued and valuable whenever I’m interacting with people. I try to lead with that kindness and understanding for peoples’ differences and different paths in life.
‘Activism is my rent for living on this planet.’ I love that quote because I sort of see my purpose in the world as—without being too cliché—to leave it better than I found it. I hope the legacy that I leave — not just on an interpersonal scale — but on a more macro, national, global scale, is to leave a positive impact. My sense of justice is not just in terms of politics/policy, it also has to do with how I treat people. Kindness and justice are inherently linked. I really hope the legacy I can leave is doing my social responsibility of working really hard constantly to make myself and the world better… Being an ally, really just doing the work to, like I said, leave this world better than I found it.”
Frankly, this crusade to correct warped and backwards attitudes towards women’s health would discourage me. Surely I’d be sapped of energy at the end of each day. And there have been many times where I’ve seen Rachel drained (I lived with her for a semester), but nevertheless, she persisted***. Still, to so many people, Rachel musters the energy to be a trusted confidant. She shows grace and empathy to all those lucky enough to be her friend, even when the gas tank is running on empty.
Rachel’s immense dedication to her craft and her loved ones does not go unnoticed, and I’m so excited to see how she will continue to make the world a better place!
- *For the record, this is not meant to be a cheesy, dad joke take on feminism. But if it were…… damn, that kid’s a clever writer.
- ***Haaaaaa, Choyt got ’em again!
