Humber Health

I was sitting in the waiting room of my college health clinic around 2004. It was full, not a spare chair, all of us, women. A boy busted through the entrance in a way that alerted us to the fact that he didn’t have an appointment. He hesitated, seeing us all there waiting for the doctor. Did he recognize our anxiety in that moment? Had he anticipated the solemn room full of women he was walking into? He paused, so he may have. Then he remembered why he was there, his friends waiting in the hall laughing. He straightened, set his gaze on the bowl full of condoms and did what he came to do; grab a large handful. My college experience was different than his.

I visited that clinic as much as I visited any place on campus. The nurse that helped me is one of only a few women I can think of in my life that made me feel safe and normal when life was anything but. What I was experiencing was new to me, but she assured me that I was okay, I had health care, I had an adult who cared, and that anything regarding my sexual activity or the health of my body was safe to talk about and mostly normal.

She taught me about the intricacies of having a female experience, in a male world. She was so kind, so attentive, so discreet, and she cared. I don’t know her name but I remember her face. Only now at 40, do I realize the value of what she was doing for us. Her work was so important. She was faced with hundreds of young women every year, newly sexually active, trying to educate themselves while simultaneously not get pregnant. Hormones already upside down, many on birth control for the first time in their lives, dealing with STDs, abortions, mood disorders; we were basically children in adult bodies. She helped me navigate birth control, including the dramatic mood symptoms that came with it. She guided me through complications, an std, stress, and deteriorating mental health. She was so important and this was before social media, before women’s mental health drastically worsened. I wonder if she’s still there?

I saw her once off campus, locked eyes, she smiled. I told my boyfriend who she was; he didn’t understand her importance.

Do all colleges have health clinics? Is the one at Humber still open - or have they switched to online? Does the administration recognize her value? Has she received recognition? I was reminded of this experience while stewing over the state of the American healthcare system, wondering what's available to them, and who. I was so lucky to have received this care when I didn't have a dollar to my name.