I am so happy that I finally got to see Hidden Figures. It made me think about how far we have come in so many areas of social justice in the last 50 years. More specifically, the fact that I am allowed to be mediocre.

I was struck by the fact that all of the women in Hidden Figures worked 100x as hard as anyone else around them did. It took Katherine Johnson being a straight up genius to ever be allowed to be part of any of things that were open to the white men in her office. She had to constantly prove that she was above the curve to remain with everyone else. In addition, she still had to keep up with taking care of her family in a way that I don’t think was expected of most men at the time. I know that the movie probably romanticizes how hard she was working a little, but any way you look at it she was keeping up with a lot.

50 years later it is normal to see women working in engineering and the sciences. Most importantly, for the most part I don’t feel like I don’t need to be above the curve to participate in that work force. Which is important, because had I been in the position of Katherine Johnson I might have shared a passion for mathematics, but there is no way I would have been able to walk in front of a room and wow them into taking me seriously. Not every woman is a fighter in that way, and in the past that prevented a lot of women from participating in traditionally male dominated fields where they had talent. So because of the work of women like Katherine Johnson I am allowed to enter male dominated fields as, just like, a normal worker. I don’t have to fight in the same way. They have blessed me with the be ability to be mediocre, and I am eternally grateful.

I was feeling super empowered and happy when this movie ended. And then the projector switched to CNN for some reason and Trump showed up. It ruined my high. Do I still have to be a fighter? Damn.