What a SMASH…
(via hoppipola)
"Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, ‘Dear Jim: I loved your card.’ Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, ‘Jim loved your card so much he ate it.’ That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it."
- Maurice Sendak (via tyleroakley)
(via tyleroakley)
When Obama endorsed marriage equality…
… I did exactly whatever the Dowager Countess of Grantham would do.
Katie Hirtz. I know you’ll appreciate this.
When Obama endorsed marriage equality…
… I peaced out for a bit to go donate to the President’s campaign.
You know, here. GO.
A screenshot from Alfredo Jaar’s web site.
(via hoppipola)
I Could Drink a Case of JMU, and Still Be on My Feet
The last five years of my life can be summed up in one word: Magic.
I can no longer lament that my Hogwarts acceptance letter never came, because it turns out that I found my Hogwarts in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
It cannot have all been real. I cannot have really met hundreds of people who changed my life—changed ME—every single day.
I see the world in a more complex and beautiful light than I ever could have imagined. This perspective is the culmination of five years of watching the sun come up after pulling all-nighters with my best friend at the library. It’s having seen Barack Obama, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Kai Degner, Shelby Knox, Jessica Valenti, Andrea Gibson and countless other inspiring speakers. It’s hundreds upon hundreds of lectures from passionate professors on everything from theatre history to filmmaking to french to physics to philosophy to women and gender studies to children’s literature and literacy, each word leaving it’s impression on my skin, each idea nestling itself into my mind—forcing recalibration. Forcing adjustment. Forcing growth. I contemplated careers, followed paths to dead ends and found my passion where I least expected it. And when I realized I was meant to teach, JMU made it happen virtually seamlessly.
At JMU, I took dozens of classes, hundreds of tests and wrote more papers than I care to remember. I danced, I studied, I walked, I ran, I lived, I cried, I loved, I learned. Every part of me expanded. My iTunes library has quadrupled in size, a far cry from the veritable card catalog of Broadway it had been in high school. I thought I knew how to love in high school, but that capacity has increased one hundred fold. I thought I knew how to write in high school, but looking back I can see that it was only the foundation. I thought I knew how to define myself. I slapped an “undefinable” sticker across my heart, and preached about the dangers of labeling. I thought labels could only hurt people, never mind the fear that I had in adopting the titles that were rightfully mine. I still believe in the value of getting to know the people behind the externally expressed identity, but as Harvey Milk taught, I believe that it can be dangerous to hide one’s labels in one’s pockets. Lesbian, Christian, Feminist. Any one of these words might turn a person away, but I am learning the power in embracing the many intersecting identities that we can hold as human beings. I want to challenge perceptions of any one of these identities. I have progressed, and I know now that I will spend my whole life progressing. I hope never to be “finished” with any subject. I am challenging myself to be as reflective as I am now for the rest of my life, especially once my world is complicated by adulthood stressors from which student loans have offered me a temporary reprieve.
It isn’t that I have an encyclopedic body of knowledge residing in my mind now, but I don’t think anyone ever expected that. Memorizing facts, dates, figures and theorists? I’m not sure how much of that I retained. What is that worth, anyway? JMU taught me how to think. I process everything now… Everything from Bounty commercials to news stories. I think the world is a fascinating place, and I think that because I have met at least one person that was truly passionate about any given subject. (Seriously. Just ask me about Helvetica, George Johnson. And now I’m passionate about fonts, too!)
I realize that my mindset makes me somewhat of a Feminist Killjoy… but the thing is, I feel like the sort of pessimism oft associated with that outlook is actually really counter-productive. I think it’s crucial for us to be informed. ”The unexamined life is not worth living”, Plato knew it and I do too. Life without politics, without information, without activism, is meaningless. But I believe that we owe our world optimism. I believe that there isn’t any use in being informed if you don’t also believe that it can change.
This weekend, I:
- Fell down the stairs
- Suffered a football related injury whilst doing a backbend (See Photo—That’s not a hickey, ladies & gents…)
- Struggled through the worst sore throat/tongue in the history of sore throats(/tongues) with no knowable cause. Probable Diagnosis: Death.
- Grimaced in anticipation of the coming week. All nighters all the time.
& still I think I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.
Walking through the circle on the quad
“SQUEAK!”
One of my favorite things to do with tour groups.
August 2. Norva. And then I died.
(via hoppipola)
Rugrats forever. My children will eat, drink and breathe and sweat Rugrats.
(via kathleenryan)
