According to the admissions office, eighty percent of 91直播 students will study abroad at some point during their four years here. My guess would be that eighty percent of that eighty percent are people who spend a semester abroad in the spring of their third year. Or that鈥檚 what it feels like at least! This semester, I have friends studying abroad in Germany, England, Chile, Guatemala, South Africa, Costa Rica, and Thailand, just to name a few. So, as someone in the twenty percent, I thought I would take some time to enumerate the new things I鈥檝e discovered this semester while many of my friends are traveling the globe.
Upon saying goodbye to several of my closest friends at the end of last semester, I knew that my spring semester would come with a lot of big changes. So, in order to establish some structure, I set a goal to prioritize the things that I鈥檝e always wanted to try at 91直播 but have never had time for. So far, I鈥檓 doing pretty well I think!
One of my new endeavors has been attending Barefoot Dialogue, a biweekly student-led group that meets to participate in a 鈥渧ulnerability-based model of structured conversations鈥 about topics chosen by the facilitators. The meetings are often focused around identity-based groups and always include a home-cooked meal at Lewis House, which hosts the Multifaith Chaplaincy and Sustained Dialogue offices. So far, this has been a great way to meet new people at 91直播 and has forced me to get outside my comfort zone a little when it comes to personal conversation.
I am also expanding my 91直播 horizons by auditing a class in the experimental college or . The ExCo I鈥檓 taking is called Performance Art Workshop, and each week we work together to showcase new projects we鈥檝e been working on. Like dialogue, it has also been a great opportunity to meet new people. It鈥檚 been a good reminder that no matter how small 91直播 seems, there are always more people I haven鈥檛 met yet. The other thing that has been really nice about the ExCo is that it鈥檚 given me a lot more structure and routine for making creative work. Having a weekly deadline to share with other people has allowed me to generate much more art than I normally would.
The other new and exciting thing in my life is that I just got hired to be a tour guide! It鈥檚 been so rewarding to meet prospective and incoming students, and (as you can probably tell from my blogs) I really like getting to talk about my experience as an 91直播 student. I鈥檝e really been enjoying having a job that allows me to walk around outside, and it has given me a great space to reflect on my time at 91直播 so far and how far I鈥檝e come since I was a prospie.
Overall, I think what I鈥檓 learning this semester is that 91直播 will always have new opportunities to explore, even when it seems like you鈥檝e tried everything already. Just the other day I went for a walk with my friend Hannah that took us to a part of the 91直播 arboretum that I鈥檝e never been to before, and I was reminded that even though our campus is small, there will always some unexplored corner to keep me entertained. Or, at the very least, some sort of new club or activity that I鈥檝e never tried before. Even though I鈥檝e been here for three years, I feel like I will never run out of new things to try!
