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Created January 6, 2020
Community? Engagements? Arts? Well, for starters this is a class taught at Transylvania University in Lexington, KY by professors Kremena Todorova and Kurt Gohde. The goal of this class is to form a relationship with the community by engaging in artistic projects with the community. The outcome of this will manifest itself in many ways, some recognizable and others not so much.
CETA 2020: Our first 2 emojis (of hundreds)
Created January 6, 2020
Individual Tasks
Collect addresses, make & write thank-you cards, design pronoun buttons--Anna Davis
Blog Manager--Paige Wessling
Recorder/archivist for This I Believe essays--Sarah Metcalfe
Social Media--Lydia Baggett & Garrett LeVan
Photographic Inventory (3 people)--Yousef Alsdudi, Sarah Bennett, & Faith Boles
Space, raw material, & tool inventory manager AND order enforcer--Emily Neat
Quality Control & Class Ethicist--Alex Toney
Software Design Team (3 people)--Shelby Barker, Emily Cecil, & Abby Pearson
Fabrication Team (3 people)--Brooklyn Greer, Will Hemingway, & Marissa Price
Finishing Team (4 people)--Nannie Baze, Emon Daneshmand, Ally Frederick, & Madison Phillips
Additional photographic documentation--Kremena and Kurt
Working with production design at Kre8Now Makerspace--Kurt and Kremena
Publicity for the class--Kremena and Kurt
Securing materials needed--Kurt and Kremena
I leave my dorm and begin swiftly walking towards my first class of the day. The girl in front of me follows the line of the sidewalk as I charge up the muddy incline of a hill with my heels dug in. As I reconvene with the pavement and the girl, she hops over a murky puddle of rain from the night before, while I maintain my stride, sloshing through the water. Once I get to my class my feet are as warm and dry as the moment I put my shoes on, and I settle in contentedly.
ReplyDeleteFor as long as I can remember, I have loved to stomp, jump and splash in puddles. Further, I have never minded playing in the mud or getting my hands dirty. Unlike many of my peers, I still have not outgrown this quality. As I have matured, I have begun working with ceramics, and find myself covered in a shean of dirt by the end of almost every day. This may bother some people, who can't stand the feeling of clay dried to their hands, arms,clothes and shoes. However for me, it is the most rewarding feeling in the world.
What makes this all possible-- walking through mud and water, trudging up and down slick inclines, spilling clay onto my shoes as I work in the studio--are my boots. I have gone through many pairs throughout the years, looking for the perfect ones, and finally, I found them. With a thick rubber sole, tough and waterproof red leather on the outside, and best of all, they slip on and off my feet with such ease.
From October to March I wear my boots five to seven days out of the week. Good for every occasion, and every obstacle my feet may encounter, I believe in the ability and necessity of my boots, for my lifestyle.
I love getting dirty in my artistic pursuits as well! When I don't care about what I am wearing and am getting dirty, I usually put on my old, worn out Sperrys from high school
Deletei think most people have their "wreck it" shoes. i agree, they are a necessity.
DeleteIn undergraduate school, I felt exactly as you do about a very specific brand of clogs. I wore them every day, tucked in my shirts, and wore a belt. When I arrived at graduate school, all of this (along with my haircut) caused folks to imagine I was Dutch.
DeleteThough clogs and long hair are no longer part of my life, the comfort (physical and mental) that comes with the right pair of shoes (now boots) always will be.
Rainy days have always made me sad. Don’t get me wrong, I love rain. I love the scent of the earth opening up to receive it, I love listening to raindrops hitting and wind shaking my window, and I love the life that it brings. But the grayness and gloominess and coldness always puts me in the worst mood. I thrive in the sun. I live for color.
ReplyDeleteI believe in yellow raincoats. I think that surrounding yourself with color when the world seems devoid of it is the perfect antidote to combat the gloom. Whenever it rains, you can find me wearing multiple shades of yellow; I like to joke that I’m replacing the sun. It may sound silly, but yellow raincoats provide me with happiness and hope. When it’s downpouring and I’m soaked and I want nothing more than to retreat into my bed forever, I can look down and know that it will pass. Everyone should have their yellow raincoats: something that reminds them that the darkness is not permanent, that the sun will be out again.
(This is Sarah Metcalfe. My computer is broken, and this computer will not log out of my bf's google account)
I need something like your yellow raincoat to get me through the rainy days too. They drag me down in the same way. I'll think of your yellow raincoat as the sun if I see it on a rainy day--that thought makes me very happy
DeleteI have a similar way of dealing with rainy days. Instead of wearing yellow to feel the warmth, I always make a really warm cup of herbal tea. It makes my entire body feel warm and brings me comfort. I love that you found your cup of tea for dealing with rainy days as well!
DeleteI love this reflection! And I love color. I will brig to class today my own antidote to what feels like the all-pervasive grayness of winter rainy days.
DeleteI love this concept! I have had the same dull, dreary, black raincoat for years and it only adds to the monotony of rainy days. I was just commenting today on how i need a new, brightly colored one.
DeleteBefore reading your essay, I had never imagined the reason raincoats are yellow might be as an embodied replacement of the sun. I like that idea almost as much as I like reading that you know the smell of the earth opening up to receive the rain.
DeleteI believe in thankfulness. Every night before bed, my sister gathers her children together and they do what they call “Thankful Things.” Each child gets a turn, and they name something for which they’re thankful. Jackson is thankful for getting to watch cartoons after dinner; Ella is thankful for the new nail polish color she got from Grammy; Maddie is thankful for the blanket fort we built together; and, if I’m lucky, little Sophia says she’s thankful for Memmie--that’s me. It’s sort of astounding, honestly. At some point, I’m pretty sure I have heard each of them name me. I’ve never understood it. The children generally annoyed me. Thankfulness for them was rarely reciprocated on my part in those moments. But looking back (and at a healthy distance away, haha), I guess I am thankful.
ReplyDeleteThat’s what I believe--that it’s important to be thankful and acknowledge it. Whenever I am with the kids at nighttime, I also get dragged into their tradition, and it often gives me a better perspective. I spend a lot of my life focusing on what I do not have or cannot do. It’s hard for me to find contentment in the moment, so I keep myself constantly in motion. But that doesn’t breed happiness. In fact, I’m getting sick of it.
Common advice from books and therapists is to write down each day several things for which you are thankful. One can take the prompt shallowly or deeply, I think there’s still a benefit. I was reminded to do this last week. When I can’t think of anything immediately, I start with all the luxuries of a first-world life. But then I find it hard to stop. My list quickly grows as I fail to narrow down the things for which I am MOST thankful. This shocks me because I was in such a negative headspace before. Pointing out the things for which I am thankful drags me out of that mire. I challenge everyone to test that by commenting below with something for which they are thankful.
Sometimes we forget how much we actually have in our lives. This was a great reminder for us to be thankful!
DeleteWhat a good challenge, Emily.
DeleteThis morning, I am thankful for my house, which keeps me dry. And for my car, which will soon keep me dry. And for a warm office that's impenetrable to rain.
It is always a fantastic reminder to be thankful. In the spirit of this essay I am thankful for the wonderful people who surround me, my goofy dogs and a warm bed to snuggle into every night.
DeleteI really like the phrasing of "Thankful Things" as a nighttime ritual. I have practiced similar reflection at the end of days at various times in my life--though often I forget and your essay is a great reminder.
DeleteRight now, as I type this, I am thankful for a warm pair of handmade wool slippers given to me 2 years ago by a student that graduated from Transy 19 years ago. I am thankful for the slippers but even more for having kept in touch with him.
My life in colors. Why colors? I’m not sure, sometimes its the only I know how how to express myself. ya know?
ReplyDeleteYesterday it snowed and I was blue, as cliché as that sounds; the veins in my arms were especially bold and the azure above is unbearably clear. Everything felt overwhelming for some reason. Maybe it was the world threatening to freeze and enveloping my entire being or perhaps it was the world possibly collapsing and bursting into flames by the end of the decade. I don’t really know.
With that being said, today I was orange, not dirty orange but the orange of a winter sunrise after a snowy night. The pure beauty and ironical warmth glowed on my skin and it felt like I too was glowing.
Some days I am yellow. Yellow days are pretty good because as bold, brash, and loud yellow is, there are little joys that hide in it. I can feel my fondest memories in yellow. It's the color of the sun as it dances in the sky. Its the smell of tulips in the spring and the color of a pretty girl’s aura, joyful and free. Yellow givens me peace.
And on the really bad days, I feel the vibrant dullness of grey. These days are the hardest because feeling nothing is worse than feeling something. And somehow I get caught in the in-between of those two. I forget that I am alive and I forget that I am loved. Yet, I continue to exist because that’s life and I have yet to experience all the colors. And the thought of me waking up one day and discovering a new color is all the motivate I need.
Grey is my happy color. But I think most people see grey as you do. I like this essay
DeleteThis is such beautiful writing. I never have really thought of comparing my "moods" to colors but its actually such an awesome comparison and holds so much truth in it.
DeleteI love that you identify with colors, even when some of them bring you sadness. Yellow is such a cheerful color for me: always welcome.
DeleteWhen my children were young, one of the books I read to them was about color. It was similar to your essay but assigned colors to the day itself rather than to the person experiencing the day--as if assigning color to a day would personify the day itself.
DeleteI wonder, on reading your essay, if you wear the colors you feel? Or if you wear colors to counteract the colors you feel--especially when you feel grey?
I love this. I identify (I think subconsciously) moods, events, memories, vibes, etc with color. Some people can see color when they hear certain notes of music. This astounds me.
DeleteMy favorite line of yours is about yellow: "It's the smell of tulips in the spring and the color of a pretty girl’s aura, joyful and free. Yellow givens me peace." Describing a person's aura with color is a very succinct way to summarize a personality or feeling toward them. It cannot always be defined, but it is understood.
Marissa Price
ReplyDeleteI believe in coming home, putting my keys in the pot I made last semester in ceramics, and sitting on my couch all Friday night watching the shows I missed throughout the week.
I believe in messy bedrooms because sometimes I never get around to putting my laundry away after washing it-- and I definitely don't believe in making my bed unless I'm about to leave for several days, because I think making it look nice also makes it uncomfortable to jump into.
I believe the height of my bed is adjusted just a little too high, because that last sentence was meant just a bit too literally, and I can only avoid awkwardly hopping into bed if I step on a shelf in my nightstand. I could lower it, but at this point, it’s February and it’s not enough of a bother to change it.
I believe in my gas stove, though when I first moved in, I was nervous about using it. I learned it over the summer and now I’m used to cooking over the open flame.
I believe in my many closets-- one of which houses my sculptures and ceramic pieces and that I call my sculpture closet, except that I had to put my Christmas tree and some other things in there as well so maybe now its name is a little misleading.
I believe in the old bookshelf my mother gave me after Christmas because I needed to fill some empty space in my living room. I still need to paint it.
I do not believe in the spiders and other bugs that seemingly appear out of nowhere on walls partway through my evenings some days, but I try to trap them and take them outside.
I believe in my apartment and that in the next few minutes from typing this on Friday night that I will go roll into my unmade, set-up-just-a-little-too-high bed and call it a night.
I love this! My apartment is my heaven!
DeleteComing home after a long day is a feeling that is tough to top. After living in my apartment for so long, it is nice to be reminded how good it can be to just relax in bed.
DeleteApartments are great! Even my house guest Mr.Centipede.
DeleteOne of the most fulfilling things for me is to make my space welcoming and comforting to myself. It is so important to have a place to settle into at the end of a long day or week.
DeleteThe idea that you know your bed is a little too high and that adjusting it would be relatively easy but still you do not adjust it because you would rather relax into it, seems like proof this is a space that brings you comfort--enough that the easily imaginable physical changes to improve the space aren't even important.
DeleteI don't like to put away my laundry after I've done it either. It feels like so much work. I also love gas stoves. I'm glad you've found home in your apartment
DeleteI believe in butter containers.
ReplyDeleteA classic Southern dilemma: is bowl Country Crock butter or Monday’s mac n cheese?
My household has Tupperware, but mostly, my household has Country Crock, Land o Lakes, and Blue Bonnet. Each time we emptied out a butter container, it was a given that it would be washed out and added to the collection of plastic bowls and lids in our cabinet.
It was frustrating to be in a hurry in the morning, trying to find butter for your toast, and opening about three different butter containers before you finally found the product. It was frustrating, but now as an adult with my own household, I see the brilliance of butter containers.
I doubt my mom and grandmothers saved their butter containers with the environment in mind, but every butter container that got added to our cabinets was one less plastic item that would sit in a landfill. On top of reducing the plastic waste of our household, it also saved money. Instead of buying Tupperware, our leftover storage came free with our butter purchase.
The butter industry probably only thinks about the look of their packaging, whether or not it’s appealing to the eye, and not so much whether or not it’s a good alternative for Tupperware, but their packaging has had a huge presence in my life. Every time I see Country Crock, I think about how versatile the container is, and that even though plastics aren’t ideal for the environment, I know how to reuse it for years and years. I firmly believe butter containers taught me how to reduce and reuse. They have molded me into someone who can always see potential in insignificant things, someone who sees a sort of life after death for household items. Maybe it’s just the secret hoarder in me talking, but I believe in the value of reusing butter containers, and I’ll take that belief to my grave.
My mom does this! When I go home I can never tell whether the container of butter is actually butter or if it's leftover spaghetti or something
DeleteButter containers are magical. My nana always saves the butter containers. Nothing like putting a good soup in the butter container lol
DeleteI have never in my life saved a butter container--you have given me a completely different way to look at butter containers, Madison. Thank you. (I love this essay!)
DeleteSince I was very young my grandmother has collected everyones plastic containers from butter to shampoo bottles. However, she never used them for food storage but stuffed them full of her endless, miscellaneous art supplies and lined the shelves of her garage with them. Re-using butter containers also demonstrates sustainability.
DeleteI ate peanut butter and jelly every day when I was a child, probably until I graduated highschool. My parents purchased peanut butter in large half-gallon containers that came with bucket handles, surely designed for saving just like you save butter containers. My siblings and I carried these peanut-butter buckets into berry patches my mom found around the county and she wouldn't let us leave until we had filled 3 buckets each. We made the jelly for our sandwiches with those berries and I still have one of the buckets. It is in my office, 40 years later.
DeleteWe do the same! Cool Whip, sliced lunch meat, old take out boxes and so much more! Half of ours are so old that you can compare the logos of brands through the years, haha
DeleteWhen I am upset or frustrated I often do not say much. I get really quiet, which is not abnormal for me considering I am more on the quiet side anyway. But I do get very quiet when upset.
ReplyDeleteMy mom told me when I was younger it is better to not say anything in the moment when angry with people you love. She said that was because you wouldn’t want to say something out of anger that you will regret saying. I took what she said to heart. I watched her stay calm and collected in arguments with my dad, rather than instigating the argument further. Once she was no longer upset about the argument she would then have a conversation and talk things out.
I found myself doing this very thing. It was really hard for me to do this at first because I am so strong headed, but eventually I was able to handle upsets and anger like my mom taught me. But now I do not think I can do it anymore. When someone hurts me or upsets me I want my voice to be heard in the moment. I want them to know what I am thinking, but after many years of suppressing that and having conversations after I am unable to formulate how I feel. I do not want to say mean things out of anger to the people I love, but I also do not want them to think what they said or did didn’t affect me or evoke anger.
I do think it is smart to wait and cool down in order to not amp up the argument, I will agree with my mom on that, but sometimes I feel like I’ll explode if I can’t defend myself when someone hurts me verbally. I believe my mom was right and wrong at the same time.
Same! I'm almost never able to say anything back to anyone who says something to me that upsets me in the moment
DeleteAfter knowing you for two years, I know that your quiet contains multiple feelings, Paige.
DeleteThere are habits of my personality that developed in this very same way--from seeing the same behavior in my father. Sometimes I am beyond thankful for his example and I strive to match it (specifically his ability to quietly support those around him). Other times, it feels like something genetically coded into my personality, something I would like to decode.
DeleteWe all need to learn to deal with confrontation more, I think. It clears the air and can resolve things before they get worse
DeleteI believe in eating breakfast for dinner. People say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but as far as I am concerned, it could be the only kind of food you need to eat. Up until I graduated high-school, my mom would make me breakfast for dinner on Fridays and Mondays. I don’t know why she chose those days, but I never complained.
ReplyDeleteThe go-to meal for me was pancakes with bacon and a glass of milk. My mom likes pancakes a lot too, so she made them the most. My favorite was always cinnamon rolls though. They used to have mini cinnamon rolls, and I could eat like 12 of them. For some reason, they only have the regular sized ones in the store now. It was a sad day when my mom brought home the regular ones. They just aren’t the same! Eating breakfast with my mom at night and hanging out with her are memories that will always stick with me.
Even now that I am in college, I try and eat breakfast for dinner once or twice a week. Not just because I want to keep the tradition going, but because I genuinely like breakfast foods better than lunch and dinner foods. Something about eating pancakes late at night makes me enjoy them just as much as eating them in the morning. I guess it makes me feel like a rebel, IDK.
Brinner (the Stress Fest event that occurs every semester) is among my favorite Transy traditions and days of any given academic year for this very reason. I love breakfast. Over the summer I made omelettes for dinner all the time. I don't know why so many foods are exclusively considered "breakfast foods"
DeleteI'm with you Garret. Breakfast food is the best food, especially cinnamon rolls. My dad always made brunch before church on Sundays and it hasn't been the same since Ive been in college, not having brunch on Sundays that is.
DeleteBreakfast for dinner seems to be a tradition in many homes. I wonder if the idea can be traced to any specific thing? I can't really imagine why omelets or pancakes or waffles ever became exclusive to early-morning meals.
DeleteWaffle house is open 24 hours a day and from what I can tell only serves "breakfast" foods.
Cold cereal with milk, though, that feels different to me--like it really should only be consumed before mid-day
I genuinely crave Brinner when I sit down in my CS class or study for a long time in the BSC hallway--the two things are just innately connected in my mind, I guess. However, I prefer eggs and biscuits as my breakfast foods and would eat cereal and milk at any time of the day
DeleteI believe in thrifting.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of clothing and textile waste accumulated in landfills at the end of 2019 was estimated to be around 34.9 billion pounds. Consumers across the world keep up with the fast-fashion industry as they buy new, trendy clothing, but most of this clothing is worn a few times, if that, and then discarded. When people get rid of their clothing, they donate it to places like Goodwill or Salvation Army, or they simply throw it away. Much of the clothing that gets donated only stays on the floor for short periods of time; when it does not sell, it is transported to other locations to be sold for a cheaper price, like the Goodwill Bins that you can find in other states, but when it is not sold at these cheaper prices, it is often shipped in bulk to landfills across the globe. For these reasons, I believe in thrifting. When you buy clothing from secondhand places, you are preventing it from ending up polluting our earth. A lot of people turn away from thrifting because they do not want to wear someone else’s clothes, but much of the clothing that people donate is in excellent condition and sometimes even new with tags. For this reason, I decided to start reselling the clothing that I find at thrift stores. Over the last year and a half, I have created my own “closet” on Poshmark, an online selling platform, where I have made 519 sales to people all over the country. While this is great for me and my business, it is even better for the environment as these items were from my own personal wardrobe and Goodwills in Kentucky. There are lots of treasures to be found at thrift stores, and anyone can lighten the load of clothing in landfills by shopping second-hand.
I love this topic. Thrift shopping is literally one of my favorite things to do. You never know what you are going to find and how great of a price it is going to be. And on top of savings for me, helping save the environment some hassle is also pretty amazing!
DeleteThrift shopping is my obsession, coupled with antique shopping. Just today my boyfriend joked that I knew where every thrift store in the state was, and he isn't really wrong. I feel like thrifted clothes and second hand antiques just have a personality that you can't find in stores!
Deletethrifting is my favorite way to get clothes
DeleteI am still waiting for that special invitation to your thrift store, Lydia! I love buying second-hand clothes and accessories!
DeleteSalvation Army and Goodwill stores, for me, are far more likely to yield a feeling of having discovered something than any store that sells new clothing.
DeletePlus some of them arrange their clothing by color first and then size within that color range. That alone would make every store (not just clothing stores) more exciting for my eyes.
Please note before reading: this essay includes a brief narrative of sexual violence
ReplyDelete.....
Though he held tight to the glass handle of his Corelleware cup, my father hurled its contents across the room. He bathed my brother, who was trying to leave the conversation with the last word, in hot coffee.
Though she held strong with her lawsuit and was awarded $640,000 for suffering, Stella Liebeck was hospitalized 8 days for skin grafting after accidentally pouring a too-hot cup of 1994 McDonald’s coffee directly into her crotch.
Though at 22 years of age, Bruce Hopkins wrapped his arms around the head of a sixth-grade girl and said “You are coming with me,” her friends kicked him and doused him in their just-purchased, large, 2018 Speedway coffees. Badly burned, he was arrested in Michigan.
Though in full view of the convenience store surveillance cameras, an as-yet-unidentified man took a bag of money from a DeKalb County, Georgia courier for an armored truck service by throwing a cup of hot coffee on him from behind, snatching the money, and running.
Though I recoil at the assault weapon graphics printed on the beans packaged by the Black Rifle Coffee Company, after consuming 3,189 cups of coffee thus far, I believe coffee is a weapon.
Wasn't a similar defense used in medieval times? the pouring of hot liquid over the walls of a fortress onto enemies below?
DeleteI believe in not trying to trick students into a bad grade.
ReplyDeleteOver my many years of being a student, I have time and time again run into professors that go out of their way to make a class harder than it should be. Now, I understand that the point of classes is to test your knowledge and push you to learn more and study harder. However, I do not believe that including questions on test that are radically outside the information that professors know we had at our disposal or rewording a question just for the pure purpose of making students stare it, trying to figure out what it is asking us, are helpful tools. These types of questions are not testing what we know, but forcing us to say what we don’t.
My biggest problem with professors like this is that it does not feel like they are trying to get me to learn, but rather show me how little I know. It is disheartening to look at a test and not recognize an entire portion of it because the professor just wanted us to “really push the bounds of what we’ve learned in and outside of class.” Because the thing is, I haven’t learned it. I learned what they told me to and I learned it really well. But I didn’t think to study that one imaginary portion of my text book that distantly relates to the material presented to me in the course.
Going into a course, being excited about the material I am going to learn, just to be knocked down by an unreasonably hard test doesn’t make us want to study harder. It makes us want to give up. How can we study for something when we know that we are just going to be asked questions that “relate to this field and we should therefore be able to imply what the answer is”? We can’t. All this type of testing does it make us wonder why we even bother to read the text or take notes in class. I believe that we should be tested on the knowledge that we actually have access to, not be given grades based off of how well we can connect the very far apart dots.
Encountered this issue Wednesday. It was so disheartening because I was really starting to enjoy the class, but once I got a test full of information that was never presented in class, all my enjoyment went out the window.
DeleteI totally agree with this whenever teaches do this I always lose respect for them and never enjoy the class as much as I could if they were just kind to their students.
DeleteAs a professor, it hurts me to find out that some of my colleagues assign tests as a way of knocking students down and/or proving to them how little they know. I believe people learn best when they feel cared for and encouraged. I know I do.
DeleteWow, our responses relate so much. And also with Madison! If I get a bad test grade my liking for the class just decreases.
DeleteEchoing Kremena but expanding it beyond Transy to academia in general, I am always disappointed by moments of awareness like the one your essay provides, Faith. I am disappointed to be a participant in a system that often operates on a belief that people (in this case, students) need to first be broken in order to grow.
DeleteIn a community where everyone is learning together, everyone grows faster and the community grows faster. I am convinced of this and it saddens me for any teacher who intentionally crafts a test to "force students to say what they don't know."
I always imagined (perhaps naively) tests were designed to help teachers become aware of what they covered well and what needed to be shared in a more effective manner.
There are 4 Emilies in my 3 classes this semester: at least one Emily in each class.
ReplyDeleteTwice a week in the morning, I meet Emily who is always ready to say yes. In the second week of classes, she volunteers to go first on an assignment that requires public speaking. It’s the kind of thing most people prefer to do after someone else. I imagine she offers because I have asked, because she wants to help out. When she performs her dramatic reading from a Shakespeare play, she is confident and unassuming. She requires no recognition. Once after class, she tells me she likes old literature. We laugh because I’ve just told everyone 21st-century novels are my favorite.
I see another Emily in my early-afternoon class. She is the Emily who thanked me for choosing There There, a novel so devastating, she could not put it down. I overhear her telling another student it’s the first time she’s liked a book that was assigned. I consider the magic literature can make happen. I consider the kindness of Emily who thought to publicly share her feelings about a book: not the kind of thing most people share with comfort. On that day, I know I’ve done something right.
Then there are two Emilies I see twice a week in the same class. Some weeks we encounter each other three or four times, like the time one of the Emilies came to be photographed wearing a hijab so a classmate would not feel singled out on campus. Emily showed up despite peer pressure to not participate. This Emily is also funny. Her humor so dry, she keeps me on my toes. She keeps me laughing.
The other Emily asks me about Italian-language classes the first time we speak. We bond over our shared hunger for travel. She hopes to return to Italy. I encourage her to explore other options, like Sweden, where summer days are unending. For now, she sits here in class: tenacious and thoughtful. When her wood-burning design doesn’t go the way she imagined, she puts it aside. She remains consistently kind.
I believe in Emilies, making the world more caring and, at times, funnier.
I smiled the entire time reading this. This is such a lovely essay, thank you :)
DeleteFrom time to time I hear names that don't feel quite like they fit the person they belong to. Harold, for example, is a name that suggests a specific personality to me (because of a few Harolds I have known).
DeleteEmily has never been one of these names for me and your essay makes me wonder if that, too, is the result of Emilies I have known--that they have been easier to see as individuals unshaped by their name.
Eugene, like Harold and unlike Emily, comes with a suggested personality to me.
I have a friend who jokes that she is only friends named Emily. She has at least 3 in her immediate circle that I can think of. I've never LOVED my name. It's nice and traditional, but as Kurt says, I didn't feel it gave me much personality. In fact, it felt like my parents got kind of stuck in a rut when naming me because both my first and last name are shortened versions of "Amelia" and "Elizabeth"--two of my sisters' names. I guess that's what I get for being the 6th child
Delete
ReplyDeleteI read a tweet February second that made my world stop. I choked up while reading it and took a moment to cry. The tweet read as such:
Goodbye Twitter! Leukaemia has finally got the best of me and this is my last tweet. Twitter has provided entertainment, information, and the chance to 'meet' lots of nice people, so thank you. Don't be too sad, I've had a long and happy life.
This tweet was made by a woman named Angela, a grandmother and Gardner from London. I saw this tweet shared by one of my friends on my timeline. I did not follow Angela, but felt compelled to look at her past tweets. I saw that she was an avid art fan and loved to talk about politics. I did not know this woman personally, but saw a glimpse of her through her tweets.
I did not know her..but I cried for her.
I sat in my bed and cried thinking about how I was one of thousands of people to see this tweet. It made me stop and think about how we live so much of our lives on social media. Sometimes living our lives on social media means we can connect with people we never would have before.
We all live, love, and die, it’s the truth. Angela’s tweet made me feel human. I see my interactions on twitter in a different way now. You never know what someone is going through on the other side of the screen. Love one another and cherish moments.
I believe in Twitter
This is beautiful, Emily
DeleteThanks, Emily, for a story that allowed me to feel a bit of humanity for a social media platform that has seemed--to me anyhow--like the least warm, personal, and humane of all the major social media platforms.
DeleteIt makes me wonder something that is less about Angela and more about how we use different social media (individually and collectively)....Did Angela make a similar post on Facebook?
I believe learning another language makes you a better person, who understands other cultures. Everyone should work to learn another language because when you do it makes you more intelligent and understanding to people who are different from you. According to extraclass.it learning a second language can even help memory, concentration and lowered risks of dementia and Alzheimer’s. When you learn another language your job prospects expand because you can communicate with more people. I’m so glad I chose to study another language and continue studying it because it makes me a more rounded person and when I travel it is easier to communicate with other people. I love studying French because I always wanted to travel to France, and because I worked to learn the language I got to travel. When I travelled to France I did it through the Lexington Sister Cities Exchange, so I got to live with a host family for three weeks where I lived with an authentic genuine French family that taught me so much more than a classroom could ever teach me and I got to see many different parts of France. Through learning another language I’ve met so many of my best friends. My favorite part was during high school my friends and I used to talk to each other in French when we didn’t want to talk to our other friends which was not only fun, but helped us practice our French speaking skills.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! I actually forget that English is not my mother tongue, that I studied it many years ago. But I have been so thankful for Italian and Arabic, both languages I am learning, both of them revealing new worlds to me...
DeleteI agree, as well. I believe that schools should require foreign languages before high school!
DeleteThere is a naturally increased tolerance to difference, as well, in countries with multiple official languages. The United States is one of only 3 countries with no official languages. Granted, most countries have only one official language, but some have as many as 16.
DeleteI love language-learning too!!! It's why I'm a math major! It's all a big puzzle and logic-filled (except for English grammar, of course)
DeleteOn all four walls in my room, I have posters covering the empty space on the wall. A couple are sports team banners but the rest are movie posters. One of the bigger posters is my favorite movie of all time, Forrest Gump. Which, yeah, might be an original, cheesy movie to pick but to me it has more meaning than itself. Throughout the movie, you are on a roller coaster full of emotions- from being angry and upset at kids before Forrest ran, to the comradery of brotherhood when Forrest yells, “I gotta save Bubba” before running back into the hellacious war in the forest. I believe movies are an influential art in life that means more than the movie itself. I believe movies pass on lessons that you can take from them and use in your real life. Another example is the movie Captain Phillips (Yes I know it's another Tom Hanks movie). It is about a captain of a large cargo ship from America that has his ship taken over by Somalian pirates. During the movie, Captain Phillips says something along the lines of “there has to be some other in your life besides being pirates,” in which the Somalian pirate responds, “maybe in America.” This movie gave me another perspective. I couldn’t imagine in any life that I would be taking over a massive cargo ship because it is my way of life. Movies are a great form of translating meaning and lessons.
ReplyDeleteSome folks, it seems, are able to watch movies as pure entertainment and only sometimes do they glean meaning or lessons from them. I find movies interesting specifically because I am confident they were all made by people hoping to use their movie as a platform for meaning. Still, I think it is the surprise moments of meaning (like your "maybe in America" example) that stay with me the longest.
DeleteI believe I need to get my life together.
ReplyDeleteThis semester I have been asked more times than I can count about what I want to do with my life. I could not even decide what to eat for breakfast today, so I just didn’t eat anything. What am I supposed to do when I have to choose a career?? I have been slacking in my classes, I get little sleep, and I haven’t been to the gym in weeks. I can’t figure out where my time goes. I believe I need to get my life together and I will be starting this week. My days will consist of waking up and actually going to class, going to the gym, and studying. I will improve my diet and study skills, and hopefully that will start my self improvement. There will be no end. No point where I am satisfied with my success and I will push myself to constantly do better. Recent events in my life will be my motivation and a pressing reminder than I need to be great not for just myself but my friends and family. I want to show them what I can do and support them with my success story. I believe I need to get my life together, and I will.
Same. :)
DeleteBig mood
DeleteFacts - Emon
DeleteI am typically certain other folks in my situation (mid-40s college professors, for example) feel more together than I do.
DeleteSometimes I find out we all feel like this, like things are getting away from us. In those moments I realize we are all doing our best.
Then I forget that and have to go through the entire process again
It's amazing how insecure we can feel in ourselves and how put together we imagine others to be. In reality, I think we all have a bit of chaos bouncing off the walls of our skulls
DeleteI do not believe in tests.
ReplyDeleteBecause I am an education major, I have written a lot of papers. So, I have probably taken a total of 6 tests throughout my four years here. I am not going to say that I believe writing papers is easy, but I am not going to say that they are hard. Once my teacher said, “I like giving you all the option to write papers so you can really write about what you know”.
So, this semester I am taking 4 random classes. With these four classes, I have two classes that have more tests than papers. One of these tests was last Friday. I knew everything we went over in class, and everything that was on the test. However, I was unsure how to answer the last question. This question was 20 points. After calculating, if I were to get every answer correct, except for the last question, I would get a 50/70. This is a C-. A C- all because I missed one question?
Some people may have done well on the test. I wish I knew if I did. I also wish that maybe we could've had the option to write a paper, or there could've been extra credit. Anything. Because of this experience, it puts a damper on my whole outlook on this class. I feel less motivated to go, and I am more worried about the next test.
I studied hard, and I am learning. Shouldn’t that be enough?
I talked to Emily about it, and she said “now you understand my pain”. She always takes tests and stresses about the scores.
I will probably be okay, but I really hate what tests do to my mental well being.
In one class I teach, we have a "final test" in the first minutes of the first day. I hope that doing this moves the stress of possible tests out of the class entirely.
DeleteI always found "pop" quizzes to be the most troubling. As if to be prepared for life we must always assume there may be a jump scare a minute away...
I also dislike taking tests (though I occasionally assign them). My heart was racing really fast the last time I took a test. I ended up getting right the minimum number of questions I had to get right to pass. It was mildly terrifying I almost failed.... Your reflection is making me rethink using tests.
ReplyDeleteI believe in saving the turtles. We do not realize it but a lot of our trash gets dumped into the oceans and major gulfs. To us, it may seem like its just trash but to a curious turtle, it is an anonymous object that he or she wants to learn more about. The turtle could think its a toy and get hurt trying to play with it or the turtle could think its food and get hurt trying to eat it. My point is that whatever trash you have think twice about where it might end up and definitely look for new alternatives such as recycling. A simple trick when throwing away a 6 pack head, is to break each hole therefor no animal could get their head stuck and get choked by it. Disney did a great job of replicating this situation in the animated film Happy Feet. The famous penguin, Love Lace gets a 6 pack ring head stuck around his neck and makes him believe that it came from the aliens and gives him power. Later he starts choking from it and almost died. My point is that we as humans have a huge impact on the environment around us. If all of us changed just the little bad habits we have, we could have tremendous change towards the environment and ultimately save the turtles.
ReplyDelete^^ Emon Daneshmand
DeleteI asked about the straw in class after you read your essay. But I wanted to ask about the other options for holding cans together into 6 packs. West 6th brewery in Lexington uses a different method which ends up feeling more problematic for the environment (though not for turtles).
DeleteI believe in white shoes. In eighth grade, I went through a growth spurt. My days were filled with aches and pains from growing. One day, I woke up and no more pain. Yet, my feet stopped at size 12 in women’s shoes. On my birthday, my aunt gave me a pair of shoes for my giant feet. I put them on and they looked huge. “They look like bowling shoes.” “You have clown feet,” my family responded. The summer before my freshman year of high school, I was committed to finding a shoe that made my foot look smaller. I found Target white shoes. I could fit my large foot into an 11 and the white was slimming. So, I committed to wearing only white shoes all of high school. In my junior year, I lost 50 pounds, and my feet shrunk. I was down to a size 10. I felt amazing that my feet were at an acceptable size. I made sure to keep wearing my white shoes, stuffed into a size 9, to keep them small. I gained my weight back. But, I wouldn’t let my feet grow bigger. I have weird feet. My arches fall and my ankles are weak and I walk with my feet turned out. It’s the recipe for a long, painful journey with your feet. Coming to college, I still wore my white shoes, because of how my feet are, they rub holes into the bottom of the shoes. I went through 15 white shoes in my first two years. I needed to upgrade. So I did, no matter what shoe I found it would be size 10, that was my size shoe from now on. Therefore, I’ve worn a size 10 since high school. Now, my feet are painful. It gets worse and worse each day. I needed shoe inserts. I got a pair molded to my feet to help my walking. The man that helped mold the insert to my foot, told me I was wearing too small of shoes and that aids in my pain. I am a size 11, but I don’t want to be. There are certain difficulties associated with having size 11 feet. You can’t find shoes anywhere, my feet are bigger than the steps on a staircase, people trip over them and make fun of them. I blame the clumsiness of my big feet. But, isn’t it a wider foundation for my whole being? The size of my feet doesn’t matter as much as the size of my ass, stomach, or boobs. I shouldn’t let my feet control me. So, I don’t believe in white shoes, I believe that big feet don’t matter.
ReplyDeleteParts of this are so funny to read. The idea that you know what size foot is larger than the steps on a staircase, for example.
DeleteAlso, feet are really strangely designed. If we were making a sculpture and folded two pieces over on the bottom to stabilize it, we would never ever fold both pieces in the same direction.
I realize it is how our bodies are but by virtue of our feet both pointing the same direction, we demand constant muscle engagement to stay upright. I would like to be able to sleep standing up. Bigger feet with toes that point away from one another would make that so much simpler.
Feet are freaking weird, man...I don't know how we stay upright
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ReplyDeletePeople in today's society grow up differently based on the countless number of difficult circumstances and problems they encounter in their life. In addition to the difficult circumstances in life, the people around one's surroundings can also heavily impact their behaviors and perception of the real world, including parents. Parents, without a doubt, can be a great influence on their children based on the actions they take and decisions they make. Similar to many people, my life has been significantly impacted by the decisions of my parents.
Carefully thinking back, I have realized that something about me has been going largely unnoticed-which is the fact that I grew up with an alcoholic father. For many years I had to hide the fact that he was an alcoholic due to his job. By hiding this truth, I had also unintentionally built myself a mask that concealed at the time, one of the ugliest aspects of my life.
Thinking back over and over again, I have realized how much my view on life has been impacted by the acts of my father while he was an alcoholic. Growing up with my father while he was an alcoholic was undoubtedly a journey filled with many struggles, ranging from coming home to my parents constantly arguing to waking up at 4 am to my father passed out drunk in the bathroom with a huge gash in his head. My father allowed the alcohol to manipulate him and take advantage of him. Furthermore, because of his excessive drinking, I slowly began to lose hope in the idea that he could return to what he used to be. Many nights were spent begging and pleading him to go get help with no avail. Finally my mom, brother, and I decided to take action, we had an intervention and my dad left for rehab for 3 months. Although these struggles all seem to be negative experiences at first, they do eventually become something valuable if one chooses to see them in a different way.
My dad is now four years sober and our family is better than it has ever been. These experiences matured me and helped me realize who I am and who I want to be in the future. It made me understand first hand that no matter how well off or put together a family looks on the outside there can and are problems, sometimes very large ones on the inside. Through this experience I believe alcoholism is a disease and that it can take a very successful intelligent amazing father and morph them into somebody you can barely even know or understand but it can also make a family closer with lots of love, strength and determination.
Your father is lucky to have all of you, and you are lucky to have him back.
DeleteI imagine most people have seen a family member or friend struggle with addiction in one form or another. Talking about it and removing some of the stigma around addictions surely helps.
I have similar experience with my brother. Substances can be really nasty things. I had developed a fear of them through my early experiences. I think that's when they can gain their power.
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