Today I'm thankful for "May I Kiss You?" presentation at Carleton that found the right mix of hilarious and serious, for strong survivors of sexual assault, and late-night philosophical and life conversation on Thursday night that kept me from writing here yesterday, but I would not have had it any other way. In response to the presentation, we all can do our part to educate all in our society to respect each other and to not force intimacy against someone's will, whether under the influence or not, and we also need to be there to listen to our loved ones if/when they are in need. Only an individual knows when they are ready for intimacy, and two people should be on the same page if they are ready for that together because it should be a beautiful thing, and yes, a beautiful, consensual, thing. You all deserve that respect, and yes, consent is sexy, so ask for it.
In addition to lighter and various other topics, we talked theory-based versus experiential education, looking at where we are called to be in life and what steps are tough but necessary to get there. Especially with a lot of my now-senior friends going through comps (Carleton's senior thesis project), memories resurfaced of those days when I too, along with my Forge girls, struggled with the purpose of this project in our lives and wanting to do well not for anyone else's standards or pressure but own goals of graduation, satisfaction in our project, and knowledge for knowledge's sake. And that in whatever circumstances we are handed, we are called to do the best we can.
Sometimes senioritis sets in during the comps process, actually, I'm pretty sure (although please correct me if my assumption is innacurate) that literally everyone asks the question, "Whyyyyy am I doing this? What is the point? I just want to be done........" If comps to you is just a graduation requirement, do your best work that you need to graduate. Your effort should be reflective of your end goal, and perhaps the little time you have left in college is better spent involved in other activities, but you are also there to serve an academic purpose that is meant to prepare you for the next stage in life. Comps is not a be-all-end-all, but I would hope it can be a project you are proud of and that you can rest easily knowing you gave it your best while being realistic in your priorities. Seniors, you've got this!
I'm thankful for many things today. I'm thankful that this freak-January rain gave me a free carwash. I'm thankful that my dental saga is finally over and that my dentists have put in so much effort over the past months to fix my tooth just right. I'm thankful for a lovely day in the Cities with my fellow Carleton alum-bum as I dragged her to my appointment before we could do some culinary exploration (that included mango bubble tea with a touch of rum! Qualifying my excitement by saying we did not get anything near tipsy, just a little silly!). And I am thankful that we finally got to go to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts' Terracotta Warriors exhibit like we had been wanting for weeks. The intricacy and uniqueness of each soldier was astounding, not to mention that level of detail and personalization on such a unfathomable scale, recognizing the cost in human life and freedom to make this feat of an actual clay army to protect the tomb of China's first emperor possible. Only eight of the 6,000 terracotta soldiers could visit us at the MIA, but that only fueled my desire to put Xi'An at the top of my list of to-go places if I have an opportunity to return to China someday. Someday, God-willing.
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