Oh, the places you'll go...

I am trying to make a good status to encapsulate my feelings about this year and how a year ago today was my first day in India. Now, I could spend the whole semester thinking a year ago today I was in: _______ [delhi, jaipur, at the taj, in the village, on a camel yadda yadda] or I could read my journal entry from that corresponding day...or not.

I am really overwhelmed by STUFF HAPPENING right now and I can't squeeze in processing the fact that I was in India a year ago. Honestly, it feels like longer. So much has happened...eeeeeeeee and now I have to come to terms with being a senior. in college. Wait! I have to terms with it and it is AWESOME. There is a lot to accomplish and being back in school mode after an amazing summer of city living and interning and independency is difficult. But I have great friends, tons of new people to meet, lots to learn and YPI to keep me motivated.

let the games begin

VAPAS. Back. at Kenyon for my fourth and final year.

so many feelings.

I am living in a gorgeous new house with my best friends and I cannot believe its real. I woke up this morning not knowing where I was #typical but so awed when I reminded myself I was in a brand new house with Bobbo, Drew, Jeff and Susan (waiting anxiously for Matt, Alyssa and Sarah)  I love the community of our house already, the way everyone is setting up their rooms and contributing to arranging the living room furniture and the first night already set the tone by having lots of people over to grill steak, corn and converse around our table. and we had a brunch of bagels and donuts. so much happy.

The first-years moved in today and it is so exciting to see their eager little faces, but it is very weird being a senior. not weird bad, just different and not what I could expect. The Kenyon these fist-years are moving into is not the Kenyon I moved into three years ago. There are a lot of physical and superficial differences but I think it has changed, but that is normal and natural. Peirce was a brand new building, but now we have the Gund Gallery and the North Campus Apartments, so many more paths are paved, the residence halls are locked 24/7 now, Perry Lentz retired...silly things...this is the last semester of paper class registration (no more running around for signatures? no more carbon copies?) It just feels different, and small. After living in a big city for three months I think I finally realize the minuscule size of Gambier and Kenyon. I still love this community and am so excited to get to know the first-years as well as have a great year with the awesome friends that I already have here at Kenyon! 

today

Monday is going to be my last day at the Children's Museum, and today I had to fill out my final self-evaluation of my internship. I reflected on my goals and evaluated the museum's internship program, and as it turns out, this has been a really awesome experience!! I achieved my goals by empowering the high school volunteers every week and leading the first-shift training, leading the tour that explains what the volunteers will be doing all week. I must have done something good because they had me outline my tour to be the official tour-giving document. Another goal of mine was to identify my strengths to determine if I want to get my teaching certification in elementary or secondary education...and as of today, I want to be a high school history teacher. But my hours spent facilitating art projects with young children was not wasted!! I needed that experience to understand that I really really don't want to teach elementary school. There were plenty of wonderful moments and interactions with children at the museum (see weather the whether) but most of the time spent with younger kids in a classroom setting tends to be redirection (we paint on the paper, use the sticks to build rather than poking each other's eyes, the cotton balls are not marshmallows...) and the rule at the museum is that we don't compliment the final project, it is about observing the process and encouraging learning not simply saying "good job" at the end. (I struggled with this, but it really does make sense for museum standards) But constant redirection and no affirmation is not the life for me. I would rather be teaching engaged students more abstract concepts and encouraging, affirming and empowering them along the way (see listening to the sweet sounds of facilitation) So hopefully this means it's all happening and I will be putting my passion into action this year in my American Studies honors project by planning and implementing a curriculum in a high school classroom...and I am officially in honors, the registrar proactively did something in my favor--WHAT? I know. miracle.

check it off the list

Driving back from the museum today I was remembering my first day in Minneapolis, moving in, going shopping, navigating the one-ways of University and 4th...and how it was all big and new and unfamiliar, but now it is fine and normal and familiar. and I leave in 10 days. back to the fine and normal and familiar [with the exception of a brand-new house, seven people to live with, and the decisions and stresses of senior year] There are a bajillion things I am looking forward to and I am also so excited to begin figuring stuff out for after graduation...I have my lists of goals and other things I would like to accomplish in the next year...but I am hesitant to list them publicly because I don't know if they will all happen. Like how everyone has a Kenyon Bucket List, I think I am going to make mine the day before graduation so I will absolutely cross everything off. The unexpected, unanticipated events end up being the most significant anyway. I have been doing reverse Bucket Lists for a while...in middle school and high school, the day before school started I would write in my journal (a journal that was intended for more frequent use but would only be written in once annually...for this purpose) and I would list stuff that I did over the summer. I would fill pages and pages and even go back weeks later to add some adventure I forgot.

I anticipated many events for this summer, but the most significant things have been the things I could not have imagined: the awesomeness of the Crooked House, learning so much about combating human trafficking, being the feisty intern at the museum, attending a spanish wedding in france...and I know this last week is going to be bittersweet, but filled with fun and...feelings.