Crowdfunding

As my facebook status indicates, I am indeed just watching the numbers scroll up next to LeVar Burton's smiling, wrinkly face. I predict that it will reach it's million dollar goal by the time I am done writing this.

I think crowdfunding is great, my Kickstarter profile shows the 7 projects I have backed. I have contributed to indiegogo campaigns, GoFundMe, and wedidit campaigns to name a few. I work with philanthropic organizations and my colleagues have asked how we can connect our foundations with folks on Kickstarter, to provide one angel investor cover the fundraising goal? They are onto something about connecting foundations with individuals online, but I don't think Kickstarter is the right platform. Kickstarter is exactly that. You want lots of individuals to donate so you actually have product to distribute, people to read your book, listen to your music, come see the play, use your deck of cards, play your board game. We should start connecting funders and foundations with individuals on GoFundMe and grassroots organizations that are not as well known. The Reading Rainbow Campaign will probably be the most successful project in the history of Kickstarter, they hit a sweet spot! The bulk of individuals donating are 90s kids waxing nostalgic about their childhood and they are now at an age where they have income to spend, and they probably have children they want to expose to the same joys of video field trips.

What's funny is this is not the only crowdfunding site I've been keeping my eye on. My friend started her own crowdfunding campaign for her band and their new EP. They just made their own version of a crowdfunding page on their website and set a goal of $10,000. The page has an accompanying video and a sliding scale of perks. I frequently check the page to see the total amount donated because I absolutely want them to reach their goal and it's fun to watch the progress bar move higher and higher. I now have both of these crowdfunding pages open, Reading Rainbow is at $955,838 and growing by the second, and Ivory Hours is at $2,476 and hasn't moved all day (probably because they update it manually at the end of the day) Also, Ivory Hours does not have a massive fan base of millennials with disposable income (yet) and they are also promoting to a generation that prides itself on obtaining music by not purchasing it. Ivory Hours really needs a kickstart! They need people to purchase the album, and listen to it and love it! LeVar Burton could have funded this whole project himself and people still would have flocked to purchase the product. I understand that he wants to provide the program for free, but I don't think he needs a kickstart in the same way emerging bands from Ontario do. So please, watch the music video for Mary. Be moved. Go to their website. Buy the album and dance to it with your mom. 

Do I want a Kenyon man?

Susan Patton’s advice that women must find a husband at Princeton is misguided for many reasons, but one being the word “husband.” What I experienced in college is socially women do not go to find husbands, we go to find partners. “You’ll never have this concentration of extraordinary men to choose from as you do during those four years” No Susan, you will encounter extraordinary people with whom to form relationships for the rest of your life. I had many partners in college. Not the romantic kind, nor the kind that Patton describes we should find while at an elite liberal arts college. They were partners intellectually, socially, creatively. I met many people in college with whom I want to spend the rest of my life. We laugh, we cry, we fight, we make-up. We send correspondence with loving regards, we call one another to catch up, we send silly notes on facebook. These are the people I want to be my traveling companions, next-door neighbors, surrogate aunts and uncles to my children. Patton says find a husband, I say, find a partner or two, or more. We put so much pressure on finding “the one,” but I have amazing partners in the numerous friends I met at school. Is there someONE out there who can support and challenge me the way all my friends do?

And of course I want a life companion, but that is a lot of pressure to put on one person. Will I find that one person? Will they attend musicals with me? Will they compromise with my bossiness? Will they cook better than I can? And will I be able to reciprocate? Will I be the person they can depend on for richer or poorer in sickness and in health as long as we both shall live? It’s scary to think about, especially as an anxious and worrisome person. Will they be able to comfort me through my explosions of emotions? Will they know never to tell me to “calm down” because I feel condescended towards when I am unable to control my own emotions?

Also, why are our intellectual equals, our should-be husbands, exclusively at these elite schools? That is less than .01% of the population of the world. (.005% if you are only looking for a romantic partnership with only half of the socially constructed gender binary.) By marrying someone from the same elite college, we are not securing our intellectual companionship, but perpetuating the standard to marry someone of your similar class background. There is companionship beyond class. There is intelligence beyond academia. There. I said it. Marriage is not based solely on being your capacity to analyze Durkheim. One of my favorite anecdotes of my parents’ relationship is when my mother offered the advice, “Marry someone smarter than you” my father replied, “I did.” My father’s reply means that both believe they married someone smarter. Reflecting on the people with whom I have been “romantically involved” I was not attracted to them based on our intellectual likeness. Less than half have earned a Bachelor’s degree. My attraction to them was mostly based on timing and some based on their ability to dance.

Men are intimidated by a smart woman and often marry someone of lower intelligence, so women need to snag the men while they are still in college? Way too often the responsibility, or blame, is placed on women. “She was asking for it,” “she should have been more careful,” “she needs to find a husband.” One again, women are forced to abide by a man’s agenda. We don’t need to tell women to get a good man when she can, we need to tell everyone to find a partner when they are ready. Not an intellectual equal, not a trophy wife, not a breadwinner. We need to encourage seeking equity in relationships. We need to encourage seeking love in relationships.

post-commencement

The question posed to me most aften this weekend was "Is it weird being back?" In regards to returning for a visit four months after graduating from Kenyon. No, it was not weird. I needed the flood of familiar faces and hugs and repeating "I'm living in Minneapolis with an Americorp position" a thousand times. I found myself squealing every time a friend identified their class year, especially the new seniors.

I recognize fewer faces, and I think funny looks from first-years proved that we feel mutual non-recognition, but I hope they all found my anonymity a sign that they are acclimating to Kenyon because they can identify that I am not a student. A 2012 alumni could be judgmental, or bitter towards the class of 2016, replacing our well-earned places as Kenyon students, but I couldn't help but think as every unknown face passed by, "What groups did they sign up for at the activities fair?" "What are they going to lead on campus" "Are they going to join Crozier/POV/WKCO/all of the above"

Kenyon was the same, but Kenyon is very different. I don't like the nickname "Wiggle Ground" for Middle Ground 2.0, the second floor of the library was hardly recognizable, though the remodel doesn't make me cringe or have flashbacks to the chair and table at which I sat for the majority of my junior year, writing papers and feeling all the feelings. The only "weird" moment came when I walked into Bucket Haus, though is now ECO/PEAS, yet has hints of the inaugural residents. The stairway was sporadically spackeled to cover the flaws caused by the wall of awesome, and the falcon lives, though now on the first floor.

The constants of Peter, Crozier, Peirce (a fantastic assortment of desserts including the fanciest pudding cups I have ever seen, sorry Drew, I couldn't get a photo. Through I probably would hide it from you anyway) and friends filled me with joy. I know I will forever feel comfortable on that campus, comfortable to walk and talk and comfortable to engage and confront. Amidst the love and the lolligagging, I understand Kenyon is dealing with outsourcing drama, a new sexual misconduct policy and President Nugent leaving at the end of the year. The Kenyon I attended does not exist in a vacuum, I am still processing and learning from the experiences I had and the classes I took. The relationships with friends are still growing and changing, I would be denying myself the chance to learn by trying to freeze a time and place that has passed. 

people today

33 days of officially living in Minneapolis, and I have randomly encountered 2 familiar faces. Thats an average of running into .06 people I see a day that I know. Which is in fact much higher than I thought it would be in a big city. The first person was Victoria Malawey on the bike path. I recognized her voice saying "on your left" and she stopped when I called out "Victoria Malawey! It is Ellen Blanchard!" That was probably only the second time I have ever called her Victoria to her face. Then, this evening while walking to the lake, I greeted a co-worker running by on the bike path. So far, I only see .06 people a day, but with a 100% bike path encounter rate.

Another crazy random happenstance was walking back after swimming, I saw a couple pushing their small child in a stroller. The wife had on a shirt screenprinted with the shape of Michigan. I complemented her and she immediately asked if I was from Michigan. I replied that I am indeed, from Petoskey. They stopped in their tracks and exclaimed that their last name was Petoskey. That could either mean they are Polish (Petoski) or they are related to Chief Ignatius himself. Their lineage is unclear because a great-distant-relative was adopted. Though they are from metro Detroit and they do enjoy sharing the name with a place they visit often. 

Learning doesn't end after college.

The most important piece of advice I received at Kenyon college, from Peter Rutkoff, while in his office for the first time as his advisee.

My job training begins tomorrow, and I could not be more excited! Because if I spend another idle day in this apartment I will spontaneously combust, it is only so many times that you can bleach the bathtub, vacuum the porch, clean lighting fixtures, change lightbulbs, or do dishes (though I will be doing endless dishes because we don't have a dishwasher #chorechart)

Even though I have not officially begun my employment, Peter proved correct (obvi) because here are a few lessons I have already learned after college:

Transitions are difficult, but even more difficult is sudden and abrupt change, for example, packing up all of your belongings in the 7 hours after you walk across the stage to accept your diploma, getting on a plane and 8 hours later being on another continent, saying goodbye to friends you only had  21 days to get to know, loading your car in a day only to unload it 2 days later and 500 miles away.  (digression--transitions are wonderful moments of opportunities opening before you--but they are also full of stress, emotion and uncertainty)

I am an extrovert. Obvious statement is obvious, but truly, I gain all of my energy from other people. Having spent a lot of time alone in Ghana, at home, and now in two weeks in Minneapolis it is painful to do things without others. Which leads me to a final lesson for the evening...I am a big fish. Yes, it's true, I grew up as a big fish in the small pond of Petoskey (though we are so blessed to have the enormous lake out our windows). Petoskey is a small enough pond that I can walk into every single store on Lake Street and know the employees, and some customers (maybe not in July, but definitely in April). Then I moved to Gambier, Ohio which is basically the same set up with the privileged exception that majority of the population is immersed in academia, and between the ages of 18-22. Now, I still claim my identity as a big fish, but now I am swimming in a GIANT OCEAN. This is the third time I have found myself as an anonymous in the community. The first being in high school, you don't have much social clout as a 14-year-old, but eventually, I directed the student-produced play and spoke at graduation...then at Kenyon, it took at least a year to teach everyone where my hometown is located on the Michigan hand-mitten, but eventually, I co-managed Crozier, started the Youth Philanthropy Initiative, and directed "Speak: Women's Voices from the Hill." At Kenyon, I sometimes dreaded leaving my haus because I knew I would have to greet, chat, or interact with every person I saw. Now, I dread leaving my house because I know I will pass by more people in one block than would be on the path to Pierce at lunchtime, and I will recognize no one. At the moment I am pretending that what I need to do here, in this new community, is subscribe to some e-mail lists, attend meetings, and in a few years I will be a quotable notable woman of Minneapolis. Well, that reality check is in the mail as I slowly convince myself this "real-world" is nothing-Nothing-NOTHING like anything I have ever experienced. At least, let's hope, for the moment.

the way we live

I had a hard time collecting my thoughts in Ghana to write a relevant and cohesive post. It's not that I was entirely overwhelmed or suffering intense culture shock, I think I got caught up comparing every anecdote to India, which I wanted to avoid. Ghana was nothing like India and I too frequently thought about them in the same string of consciousness.

I was in Ho, in the Volta Region of Ghana for 31 days, living in a hotel, with meals prepared by a kitchen staff. We also had cleaning service every day and could drop off our laundry when needed. Luxury, if you ask me. A few moments without electricity and a few more without water, but a headlamp and reserve water buckets eased the inconvenience.

The focus of each day was in the morning, whether vaccinating animals in a village or teaching in a school. We visited many villages surrounding Ho: Kpenoe (pronounced PEN-way, but I liked saying it phonetically ka-PEN-oh), Wegbe (WEG-bay), Kpetoe (PET-way), Akoefe (A-KWEF-ay) and Akrofu. Even though we were in the villages for a short amount of time we circumnavigated to get to as much livestock as possible, so we got to see the layout, interact with the people and really get a feel for the personality of the village. Even though the communities are close together, they had different atmospheres. We got to know the people of Kpenoe the best, we visited the most often and vaccinated tons of goats with the help of many women and children. Something I noticed was the variety of goat enclosures. Even though it was the same village, people built pens, fences, and walls with different materials, different sizes, different shapes. Wegbe was in a beautiful location at the foothills with lots of cinderblock structures and a landfill. We visited Akoefe when all the farmers were out in their fields, so it was desolate but when we returned to vaccinate chickens, the people were very nice and it was clean and organized. A huge part of what I learned in Ghana was getting to know the different villages and witnessing the diversity of living styles within a 20km (roughly) radius.

Now, back at home, I cannot help but notice another comparison to India. I am feeling a greater shock coming home from a month in Ghana, where I did not experience intense culture shock like I did for three months in India. I think coming back from India I was so excited to be home, in my own bed, with my family, and drinking tap water that I embraced my cultural reentry. But in that short visit to Ghana, I am startled by the things I do here at home. Jumping in the car and driving to the beach, going to the dentist, making dinner, weeding in the garden. I observed everything in Ghana, taking note of how they do things, how they live life, and now I am doing it to myself. I feel I need to remind myself "this is how I do things," "this is how I live my life," but because I am in a time of rapid transition I don't think I have figured out how I am going to live my life.

Scattered thoughts.

Sorry it has taken me a week to collect my thoughts about Ghana. I want to share the little snippets I think you will enjoy:

The typical greeting is: "Hello, You're welcome" and the response is "Yoo" or "Yoooooooo" and then they giggle because we know how to respond.

The city we are in (Ho) is primarily Christian, so the names of shops are:
God is Good Hair Salon
Emmanuel Auto Parts
Thy God mini Mart
End Times Hair Salon

We are eating at our hotel, so I don't know if we are getting the full authentic experience of Ghanain food. But we are eating rice, chicken, and tilapia. The interesting dishes are spinach stew and steamed bread. The most delicious foods I have had so far are mashed yams, sweet bread and pineapple. all fruit for that matter.

The patterns of clothes are beautiful, and today was market day, so we pushed through the crowded streets full of dizzying colors and smells. Carts overflowed with fruit and fish.

Adventures thus far:

We visited a village to de-worm their goats and I handled some goats to squirt the medicine into their mouths. I talked to the goats to try to settle them down. I would have passed out stickers for all my good patients.

African dance and drum classes are absolutely amazing. My body pours with sweat and my hands throb with pain, but it is so satisfying. Last night, the Kekeli Kids performed for us and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time until Victor pulled me up and made me dance.

Victor is our Ewe language teacher. He is stubborn and really arrogant, and moves really fast in class, but it is great! (He is not a sweet and gentle Harshji, but no one could replace Harshji)

Today we went to a primary school and Sunshine (that is her nickname) Emily and I read books to the 4th and 5th graders and did a project with them where we cut out words from newspapers and made sentences and poems. Some of the best sentences:
"Golden Immortality"
"Ghanains have the power"
and
"Beware of the Elephants"

That's all for now! All my love!

Ellen

Rated PG

PG for Post-Grad. Obviously.

About a month ago, my mom told me that she wishes she wrote down her thoughts and feelings during her transition from college to the real world. A journal, or something, but she was not telling me that I had to do it....

One of the greatest realizations of post-graduation is that I can read. for fun. I immediately devoured The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and needed more pages to turn. My bookshelf contains picture books, Harry Potter, Calvin and Hobbes, and a wrinkled torn copy of the anthology of 50 Essays we read selections from junior year in AP Comp. Reading these essays always felt like a chore, we never contextualized the authors (unless they were Martin Luther King Jr. or Thomas Jefferson). All I remember is that we read "A Modest Proposal" and discussed its irony every week. Or at least it felt like it. I resented this book, but I held unto it, thinking one day I would read "A Modest Proposal" again for laughs, or maybe when I was old enough to turn it into a drinking game...

This anthology caught my eye and I pulled it off my shelf I scanned the back only to find that it is contains essays of astounding relevance. I took a personal essay writing class last semester and now understand persona, self-deprecation as a means of gaining trust, and finding the objective correlative. I did not enjoy the essays as a 16-year-old but now have 6 more years of life experience to reflect on when reading about certain themes from specific authors. My 16-year-old annotations are pathetically entertaining "Ohhhh" and "YAY" and "good choice." I also identified every single simile. I circled unfamiliar words, but now reading over them again, I can check off the words that I now know the meaning of. abhor, dais, botulism, stupor. 

Most of the essays I find most meaningful now are the ones we never touched in AP Comp. Not surprising that they are from minority voices. I am now trying to figure out how I would make these essays fit into the curriculum of a high school history class.

Maya Angelou "Graduation" -relevant considering the most recent event of my life, and also interesting to compare the commencement address Angelou heard to the one I heard.

Gloria Anzaldua "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" -I had gloria anzaldua in my hand at age 16. I don't know if I would have understood a queer chicana poet at that time. Fortunately, now I find her inspiring and even the cadence of her name invigorates me.

James Baldwin "Notes of a Native Son"-read it in class, got even more out of it a second time.

Linda Hogan "Dwellings" -Hogan wrote "The Woman Who Watches Over the World," my favorite book from Intro WGS about the history of suffering in her native Chickasaw tribe.

Those are my recommendations for now, but other authors included are many that I have read this past semester: Judith Ortiz Cofer, Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, Richard Rodriguez, Scott Russel Sanders, David Sedaris, and Thoreau. Other authors that now resonate with me are N. Scott Momaday, whose autobiography I read sophomore year, Zora Neale Hurston, Sojourner Truth, Alice Walker and Leslie Marmon Silko, my mom's newest feminist find.

Now I know at least 28 of the 50 authors of which I probably only knew 8 when I was 16. College clearly taught me something.  
 

Time to go.

I have not been geographically stationary since 2008.

On Thursday I leave for Ghana, I am accompanying an abroad program for 4 weeks. Peter (my advisor from Kenyon) is sending me with his wife's OSU class. We will be doing many site visits including schools, farms, and an orphanage. We will be taking dance, drum, and language classes and learning from local experts about Ghanaian culture and rural development.

If you are wondering where Ghana is, you can google it. Or, imagine you are tickling Africa under its chin and that is where Ghana is located on the continent. Ghana is a friendly, vibrant country with great music and art. I am not sure what to expect exactly, but I am ready to begin the adventure!

My cell-phone access will be non-existent and my Internet access will be sporadic. I will update here or on facebook.

Also, please excuse the cheesy song, but Maggie got it stuck in my head in April.

It's blog season

Well, it's that special time again. When I feel isolated and distant from familiar friends and places I felt most attached to and need to share my thoughts with those people and hope that they respond with some sort of validation so I know I am not forgotten.

I just left Kenyon College with degree in hand, marking my official status as an alumnus. More importantly, officially no longer a student. That is what is the most difficult to accept, I am no longer a student. I identified myself first and foremost as a (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior) at Kenyon College [in Ohio] for the past four years. It was an efficient way to answer how old I am, where I currently live, what I am studying-if they had never heard of Kenyon, they didn't really care, and if they had heard of it, they knew it was some highfalutin subject that won't actually get me employed. But know I answer with the ambiguous "I graduated from Kenyon" which does not answer how old I am, or where I currently live, or if what I studied really has anything to do with my job. I can no longer claim the exclusive title of "Kenyon Student" that only 1600 young people have the honor of flaunting any given year. We had to leave to make room for the 18-year-olds bursting with delusions of grandeur of what they are going to accomplish as a Kenyon student. It's odd. Feeling so immediately separated from something that I was so immersed in two weeks ago.

The first piece of wisdom I ever received as an over-eager first-year from Peter Rutkoff: Learning does not end after college. Let's see if he's right!

start

its the start of a new year, a new semester, but I feel anything but new. Everything is so familiar, the place, the people, the smell, the feelings, the intonation of my steps on the sidewalk (ooooo feelings)...which is all wonderful, I would not give up my experiences of creating all this familiar, but this is what cabin fever must feel like. Getting stir-crazy. 18 weeks until graduation. I have so much to look forward to this year, and I feel like the things I am really counting down to are not happening until May (my 22nd birthday, graduation, moving to minneapolis) I need to decide if I want to throw myself into this semester and work hard and get involved in lots of things, make lists, stay busy to distract myself. Or enjoy it. Take the time to smell the flowers, relax and soak up my last semester. I guess that breaks down as have an active or passive semester. I have always had incredibly active semesters, but always find time to play my ukulele, laugh with friends, go for walks. I think the conclusion I am coming to is that I need to treat this semester just as I have ever other semester at this school, not drawing attention to everything being "the last" I think I can do that. So, let 2012 commence.

high school.

in my first weeks in my last year of college, I've been thinking about high school. My American Studies Honors project will require about 6 hours a week spent in a high school classroom. I visited the high school in which I will be volunteering for the first time on Thursday and the familiarity seems so distant...crowded hallways, slamming lockers, ringing bells. That really is the setting of teenage learning. My project is observing and intereacting in a 9th grade US history class and a 12th grade government class taught by the same (awesome) teacher. In the spring I will do more hands-on lesson planning and implement one of my own!

Joining me at Kenyon this year is another Petosegan, I his presence on campus is somehow making me flashback to PHS. I keep on thinking I see people from high school and I have this strange desire to yell "you're looking good" at everyone I see...and where is the giant blue stripe that makes the walls look less like a prison?

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. 

stranger danger.

All the random strangers with whom I happened to live in very close proximity have become amazing friends:

freshman roommate Kat
co-CA in upper lewis Rob
resident/Crozier Biddy Molly
India housemate Sam
Minneapolis Crooked Housemate Caitlin

and all the nicknames that I have earned from these friends:
Ruby Ellen
-
Mama Bird, Biddy, Biddums, Blen
EllenDIDI
Lola

and the nicknames I have for them in turn
Ruby Katharine
BOBBO
Bitty Biddy, Biddums, Solly
Sam Bhiaya, Kamuel
-

and they all have summer birthdays...I must be auspiciously compatible with those born under the alignment of summer stars.

landed

dream dream dream dream dream

I love when I remember my dreams with enough detail to analyze them. The heat wave is finally over and I can actually sleep at night, and sleep WELL at that...I also find sleeping well is paired with vivid dreams and then waking up thinking "Where am I?"

So. My dream...I was driving my Minneapolis housemates to the beach, but the route consisted of completely vertical rock faces, but I drove up them anyway, and I ran out of gas in about 1 mile and my engine started overheating and threatened to start a fire. We were at the top of this cliff, trying to figure out what to do, and somehow the car threw us from our seats and I was falling off the cliff. FALLING DREAM. I can't remember having a more significant falling dream. Now, dream dictionary says falling is a sign that you are overwhelmed, anxious, out of control of a situation, either at school or work or in a relationship. but...here's the thing...I landed. I caught the edge of a rock and skidded to a stop (kinda like a belly flop on a rock) and I somehow made it back to the top of the cliff to reunite with everyone else. so, I think my landing contradicts the connotations of the falling.

whether the weather

It is to hot to function. My apartment has no air conditioning. It is so hot I cannot think. Was it this hot in India? I guess the adrenaline of culture shock and the determination to confront the culture full force allowed us to brave the heat, humidity and dust in long sleeves and leggings. Now I am in bitty shorts and a t-shirt at the Dunn Bros. Also drinking coffee. Whoops. Looks like I'm going to have to go frolicking through the severe thunderstorms this evening to burn off all the caffeine. Or right now. It's raining! HOORAY! Let the frolic commence!

This week felt like a month.

I was actually productive at my Minnetonka internship--I suppose my official title for that internship is "Marketing and Product Assistant" bahahahaaa. I am taking inventory of all their Guatemalan crafts, writing sales tags, and taking pictures for the website. And when I say taking pictures, I mean photoshoot. literally. I took all the jewelry, scarves, bags and coffee outside and arranged it all next to the landscaping...the rock paths, flowers and the waterfall outside the office. I got a little carried away. #typical

I spent 21 hours in the children's museum...not consecutively, but in total over the weekend. It was a bit much, and I have to psyche myself up for that much interaction with little kids...but of course it was amazing! I worked the the Curiosity Center on Saturday evening, and the project was a "Box City" and we had lots of appliance boxes turned upright and cut out doors and windows and all week the kids painted, constructed, embellished and played pretend in the boxes. That evening was slow, and there was just a mom and her two kids in the CC. The mom was speaking to her kids in Spanish, but talking to me in English, which was very fun because I could understand the Spanish because Spanish commentary for little kids doing art is just at my level. The little girl, Anna, was making a bird with popsicle sticks and TONS OF FEATHERS #bittybiddy and then she wanted to play in the boxes. One became a castle and she was the princess, and I joined her in parading around the castle...then another box became the dog and kitty house so we began having conversations with animal noises "woof"..."meow"..."chirp"...and then we went back to being princesses when her older brother came up and said, "I declare war on your castle!" and Anna looked up at me, back at him, and said, "Meow!" War avoided. Then her mom told me that she is usually really shy and won't talk to strangers, and she has never seen her this animated with a new person :) I also had my mid-internship evaluation. they think I lack enthusiasm and energy, and I really need more confidence when interacting with children ;)

SUNDAY. I went to a Buffalo Wild Wings. Ate wings. and watched the Women's World Cup Final. TFM. Yes, we lost, but I am still very proud of those biddies. THEN I saw HP Part 2 (after finally watching Part 1 on Friday) and wept. NF.

We had a kickball game yesterday and I was pitcher...yeah. Not even gonna tell you that outcome.

I MOVE INTO BUCKET HAUS IN ONE MONTH. uh-oh. things are gettin feelingsy. I was talking to Solly (you know, the brilliant, beautiful biddy) about how when I am at Kenyon I miss Petoskey, and when I was in India I missed Kenyon and Petoskey, and now in Minneapolis I miss Kenyon, Petoskey and India, and then when I get back to Kenyon I am going to miss Petoskey, India and Minneapolis (and her, and everyone else going abroad, but I am so proud of you all because a new and different experience filled with manic bouts of culture shock is exactly what you need in your life right now. and I'm not even kidding. enjoy the ride.)

so I got to talk to Molly, Megan, and Marguerite (further confirming my conundrum of missing too many people from too many places and those are just the the Ms [not including Monica, Matt, Manak Ramji]) and I am reminded how of the awesomeness of the people in my life and how much I admire you all. and when I say you all, I mean every single person A-Z. woa. stop now. I'm in a public place. #feelings

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee now I am too caffeinated. and I get to go to a really awesome conference tomorrow, I GET TO SEE MY PARENTS ON THURSDAY and in 10 days the Blanchard Sisters are going to take on Europe.

full circle

[August 28 2010] My last day in the US before I left for India I was in Chicago with my parents and we explored the Art Institute, and took many pictures at the "Bean," Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate

[December 11 2010] My last day in India before I returned to the US I was in Delhi with friends from my program and we explored the National Gallery of Modern Art and saw the sketches and sculptures in the Anish Kapoor exhibit. 


[December 12 2010] The Minneapolis Metrodome collapsed in the giant blizzard that hit the Midwest the day I came back from India.

[July 13 2011] The Metrodome was reinflated for the first time today, and I drove by this morning and saw people standing on the new roof.


#fullcircle #metaphor #symbol #perfecttiming