Thoughts from the Nuts Chapel Hill Nomad, and a Chapel Hill Resolution

Hey folks,

Two words, one summer: Absolut trip.

In all senses of the two words.

Now it's my turn to get mushy and friend-centric.

It really was refreshing to see you who I saw. After I left, I realized where a lot of my own behaviors since graduation come from. Somehow my stories seem to come out like Kevin (I'm a rookie, so so far they're hit or miss) and I actually ate a piece of sausage while in LA (call me Unclean Bhatti). Recently I've charged like a Golden Michael Retriever toward a loved one. I read slate.com, am becoming excited by economics (to the chagrin of my anthropologist buddies), and throw my hat at the Red Sox when they lose. I have started to hand hug everyone I meet, eat completely vegetarian weeks, and devote myself to enable others in understanding what seems complex.

Over the course of the trip, Kevin's #4 became a reality before my eyes. I really am not who I am without Elise saying that I would get lost on Telegraph Street (which I almost did... or maybe I'm still there O.O), or Kevin laughing (in half joy and half agony) as he watched my partner self-plunk on the first shot of our die game in NH. The pieces of myself that I tossed, hugged, cried, laughed, and iced with you all thrived when I was around you. The times we spent this summer helped me love the symphony of your pieces, and yet continued to create new arias for me to still close my eyes and get hopelessly lost in your music.

There was a saying I used to say when I was abroad in India (and up until recently in my meditation sessions): I am me.


But it's old and needs a replacement, and so it goes now, freshly and with new purpose: I am us.


For all I did not see, you're on the list. Beware: I am lethal with a cell phone, internet access, and excess funds.

Until then, as most of you know, I'm going to be living in Chapel Hill for the next half a year, and I'm going to be busy. I'm moving away from the parental home, taking a part time class in fiction/poetry writing at UNC, working various educational jobs during the week to put money in the bank, and continuing the rootsie/granola-y oral history community activist work at the history research lab I've been working with.

What I will be doing on the side (and only as often as I can): dialogue workshops on social change (getting ordinary people together to talk through their own impressions of social issues, create relationships with others that significantly disagree with their viewpoints, and starting to create coalitions across the board as opposed to with your own allies) both in the community and at my synagogue (about Israel... Oy va voy does my congregation need to start talking Israel), co-leading creative writing workshops at the homeless shelter, aiding two homeless/underemployed Chapel Hillians in helping themselves obtain opportunity and success, and, most importantly, having a buttload of fun. I'm going to write, sing, dance, swim through whatever shakes and shudders if it's what it takes to be merry.

Which brings me to the next portion. Last year I had a goal, but I never wrote it down, and I almost lost my direction. This year I'm going to put it down, publicly. This year, I will put words to further cement my passions, encourage myself to idle away an afternoon, and make music out of the mud bubbles. It won't be complete unless I look back with my hands caked with the dirt and sweat of life and my eyes dead set on unveiling the beauty and justice that this world holds through education, conflict resolution, and underprivileged empowerment.

Last year was for healing. This year is for strengthening.

And next year? I have some clearer grad school leanings. Or perhaps a teaching fellowship is what's tugging at my leg. Community organizing? Abroad social justice? Masters in Fine--ah, f*** it, that tension's for mid-October. I'm here, August 22nd, 2012, and I'm ready to do me.

But, go ahead; try and outdate me. I dare you.

I@mbNuT$


PS: Aldaily led me to this site about the crisis in Psychology/Psychiatry that we all discussed on our way back from Georgia in 2010. Good piece of random bar-conversation: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=812&fulltext=1&media=#

Lessons we should keep in mind 2 (or 1) years later

From http://www.colby.edu/news_events/c/pr/052012/2635957/tony-blair-offers-seven-lessons-at-colbys-191st-commencement/


"Blair shared seven lessons in life.

Lesson one: “Never stop learning. Carry on. And have the humility always to know that you can learn more," he said. "Successful people are not defined by a restless search for fame and fortune but by an insatiable desire to be better and an infinite curiosity as to how. They’re perpetual voyagers on the journey of self-improvement.”

Lesson two: Maintain an open mind. “Be open to those of different faiths, cultures, races, and nations,” Blair said. “These things are the boundaries of division in history, but the open mind crosses them.”

Lesson three: “Giving is as good as getting,” Blair said. “Compassion is as important as ambition. So don’t just choose a career, choose a cause. There are many to choose from. … The noble causes—believe me they’re there amongst all the drudgery and self obsession of human existence—find them and save a bit of yourselves for them. It’s worth it.”

Lesson four: Friendship matters, and family matters most. “It’s in the family that you learn one of the most important lessons of life: that it is not all about you.”

Lesson five: Be a leader, not a follower. “And above all else, be a doer and not a critic, Blair said. “Human progress has never been shaped by commentators, complainers, or cynics. Progress is forged by the courage of the change-maker. Courage is not the absence of fear, it’s the overcoming of fear. And the leaders that I’ve met—all of them have always had their doubts, anxieties, periods of acute lack of confidence, worry,” he said.

Lesson six: Make use of the interconnected world. “It’s a fascinating and energizing and exciting world out there,” Blair said. “Take advantage of it. See the world. See its possibilities.”

Lesson seven: This time of challenge presents unprecedented opportunity. “Have confidence,” said Blair. “Because we’re not an empire based on interest but a way of life based on values. And those values—democracy, liberty, the equality of each human being regardless of race and religion, faith, or gender, free enterprise, fair play—these values that define your nation at its best and my nation at its best—they’re not a monument to our past, they are humanity’s best hope for the future.”

I hope that these serve as a pick-me-up where ever two or one year(s) post-Colby finds you.

I'll be updating this with what's going on in my life soon. It's exciting! 

Wassup ES118?

Colby reference in popular culture #6: the only time we will win March Madness!

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/04/02/colby-college-is-national-champion-of-environmental-march-madness-tournament/

If only I could put my minor in ES to use...

Colby in Popular Culture: Reference #5

Big Boi in a Colby hoodie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6aADXY-dKek#!

JanPlan at Colby Memes

Hey guys,

So Kate (she is trying to go by that now, for professionalism) Unsworth sent this site to me and its ridiculously navel-gazing, but look at this: http://inthecac.com/2012/01/10/know-your-meme-janplan-at-colby/

God? (Sorry Gwen that Dickinson is left out :( )

-Elise (as posted between meetings at the Connecticut Legislative Office Building...oh the life of pretending-to-work-really-hard-for-progressive-change.....but-actually-getting-something-done-sometimes)

col-by coll-ege

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/features/college-rankings/2011/happiest.all.html


:)


Has anyone else noticed how high Yale keeps showing up on these random lists?

Exit Here

Colby Rejects...

I'm looking at you, Bates and Bowdoin.

20!

http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/



Below is an excerpt from the Forbes article that explains how the think tank that produced this list decided ranking order:

"Our annual ranking of the 650 best undergraduate institutions focuses on the things that matter the most to students: quality of teaching, great career prospects, graduation rates and low levels of debt. Unlike other lists, we pointedly ignore ephemeral measures such as school “reputation” and ill-conceived metrics that reward wasteful spending. We try and evaluate the college purchase as a consumer would:  Is it worth spending as much as a quarter of a million dollars for this degree?

...The rankings are based on five general categories: Post Graduate success (30%), which evaluates alumni pay and prominence, Student Satisfaction (27.5%), which includes professor evaluations and freshman to sophomore year retention rates, Debt (17.5%), which penalizes schools for high student debt loads and default rates, Four Year Graduation Rate (17.5%) and Competitive Awards (7.5%), which rewards schools whose students win prestigious scholarships and fellowships like the Rhodes, the Marshall and the Fulbright."

I perhaps shouldn't put a ton of stock in these lists, but I do. They give me more reasons to be proud to say I'm a Colby alumna. It makes me happy to know that Colby fares well (20th in the country, 17th among private institutions, 10th in the northeast) against many other excellent schools in our country.

After looking at the picture above for a few minutes, I got extremely nostalgic. Miss that place, miss and love you all.