An Ode to Alyssa and MY FOLLOWER

Hello friends! So, after A LOT of contemplation, I'm doing the blog thing. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to be honest, I'm a little intimidated with the whole responsibility of "impressing my audience"! I had enough trouble even thinking of a name for the blog! Anyway... my dear friend Alyssa has convinced me that my life in Washington, DC this semester is going to be half interesting and hopefully I can keep anyone who cares (and Alyssa) updated with this blog. And Alyssa, you'd better read this and comment on it woman! So much for an ode.

Alright so onto an explanation of the title, those of you that know me (very well), you'll know that my major, American Studies, has pretty much taken over my life and completely changed how I look at the world around me. For example, I pretty much can't watch TV anymore without commenting on race, gender, or class issues that are present or the "misrepresentation" of something or someone based on one of those characteristics (My roommate LOVES this, let me tell you haha). So for example, calling Alyssa "woman" in the last paragraph... in a specific context this can be seen as condescending. Like when a man is talking to a woman and asks or orders her to do something and calls her "woman" instead of referring to her by name. This happens ALL the time on those family sit-coms. Why do we think this is funny? I know I think twice when that happens. By now, you all think I'm crazy, but it is a good way to explain my concept of "American Studies word vomit" ... I am not positive how to define it exactly, but I suppose you'll figure it out at some point.

Anyway, I leave for Washington, DC in exactly a week. This wasn't originally supposed to be my plan for the semester... I was supposed to be going to India. Long story short, after the Mumbai attacks my mom really wasn't comfortable with me going since everything seemed so "unstable" over there. I mean, I know I would have been fine, but it is what it is. Not going to lie, it's been difficult seeing all of my friends ship off to fun and different places, and "accidentally" finding pictures of the Dickinson students who are in India right now is also not very enjoyable. If you want the full saga, you can talk to me personally, but for blogging purposes I will spare you. This is one of the first times in my life something that I really wanted was "taken away", and I want to prove to myself that I can deal with change with a positive attitude. At least for me, it is going to be a challenge to take my own path of going to DC when I was anticipating to be able to have the same "abroad" experience as most of my classmates and friends. This may really sound silly, but if you are on my campus for a day and talk to people you'll realize that the vast majority of the students go abroad and very often for the entire year. In the bigger picture, I want to prove that I can successfully and proudly go on my own path and seriously get a grip on that thing called "independence." I might have said that last semester, but this time I have a public blog to haunt me. My inspiring quote to go along with this is one said by Buddha, 'find your own light,' because that is what I'm thinking is at the heart of what I'm looking for. So enjoy my life ephiphanies!

I'll leave on that note because I have to run to my beautification appointment... this is debatable. For the most part only women go to get their eyebrows waxed and take extra time to make sure that they look 'presentable'. This is common knowledge of course, but think about it. I can see some people rolling their eyes... but really, sometimes it really pisses me off that society holds us to specific standards in terms of our gender. Like why do only women have to shave their legs? Because people think it's gross if they don't!

Feel free to comment :)

PS. My current one and only follower is Aly! Congrats! Are you happy? comment on my blog now!