Writing Into the Week

One weird belief I had as a kid was the belief that everyone spoke a different language at home other than English. I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood and town, so many of my friends growing up were children of immigrants and spoke a different language at home, including myself. I was in third grade when I asked a new friend what her home language was, and after a very confusing conversation, I learned that it is actually pretty uncommon for people to speak a different language at home. I am thankful that I grew up in such a diverse community that it was possible for me to think this, and it’s a funny memory to think back on now.

One underrated quality that I find attractive is people who are aware of everyone who is participating in a conversation and are making sure that everyone is being heard. I personally try my hardest to make sure that everyone is feeling heard because I often feel as though my voice tends to get drowned out in large groups, so when someone else is doing the same thing, it makes my heart swell. I have a friend who will always say, “Don’t worry, I’m still listening” when someone stops telling their story because they think that no one is listening, and it always raises my opinion of her. Someone who pays attention to everyone is always going to be my favorite kind of person. 

If I had to pick another era to be born in, I would pick the year 2100. I have no real interest in going back in time because I would feel unsafe, but I would be really interested to see how society would compare being born exactly one hundred years later. I think there are a lot of cool developments in process, and we keep seeing society make strides for social justice, so it would be cool to see that progression. It would also be fascinating to see how we manage the climate crisis and if we managed to turn things around. I am optimistic about the future, so being born in the future would absolutely be the way to go for me.

When I am angry, I tend to retreat and shut others out. I’ve never been a very angry person to begin with, so on the rare occasions that I do become angry, I prefer to be by myself in order to process the emotions and make sure that I’m not taking it out on anyone else. Being around angry people is something that has always made me feel uncomfortable, so I don’t want to be the person that makes others uncomfortable. I also tend to process the anger into a different emotion/action; I’ll become disappointed with someone or fight for change, but I don’t stay angry. 

If my life was a video game, the most difficult level to get through would be the transition between college and being a real adult. I am absolutely terrified to enter the working force and be a teacher in charge of students. Growing up has been a very quick process, but it didn’t feel real until I had to apply to student teaching. Suddenly, I’m not just taking classes that are going to apply to a career, I’m actually staring the career straight in the face. Transitioning from high school to college was easy because of all of the safety nets in place; the failures I experienced were learning experiences and were never legitimate setbacks for me. Now, if I mess up there is a legitimate chance for it to permanently alter the course of my life. I am terrified to enter into the unknown and become a teacher instead of the student that I have been for the last 18 years. 

One phrase I wish I could ban from everyone’s vocabulary is “that’s how the cookie crumbles”. I think people often use this to invalidate someone’s feelings of being upset and when they want to avoid a conversation about the situation at hand. Even if the outcome really does boil down to the inherit unfairness and inequality of life, then there are still better ways to try and explain the situation. In my personal experience, most people who use this phrase just want to move on from the conversation. If your decision has negatively impacted another person, you owe them an explanation of your thought process and reasoning. 

If I became Earth’s official tour guide to aliens, I would take them to Las Vegas. This is the easiest decision to make because there is nothing that is more representative of the human race than the partying haven we have created in the middle of an otherwise inhabitable desert. The mesmerizing nature of the flashing lights and colors are more than enough to put anyone in a trance, and I believe that a week in Vegas would be an incredible experience for the aliens to have. Additionally, there are so many bizarre things that occur in Vegas that I don’t think anyone would look twice at a group of aliens—they would write them off as street performers or some other kind of entertainment. Aliens would thrive in Las Vegas, and if you were to tell me that there are already aliens on Earth, my first thought would be that they must be in Las Vegas.

Something that I’ll miss is the abundance of advice that you can get from people older than you. In my life right now, if I am unsure of something or need advice, I can quickly call one of my parents or talk to one of my mentors and get guidance as to what I should do. When you’re 80, you’re generally expected to be the one providing advice, and I don’t know if that’s a role that I would be good at. When I give advice to others now, I typically am making it up as I speak and am just hoping for the best. My mom always knows exactly what I should do, and I’m not sure how I would ever be able to function without her knowledge and skills in my life. 

A new sport that I would most definitely medal in would be parking. My driving skills in and of themselves are mediocre at best, but I can park like a champ in any and all situations. I have parallel parked in spaces where I had only an inch on both sides, I always park backwards when it’s appropriate to do so, and I always manage to park evenly. I have been the passenger and switched seats with the driver to park their car when the situation looks dicey. My most impressive accomplishment is parallel parking and not panicking when there was a huge line of cars behind me. A secondary sport I would be good at is overreacting to bad park jobs, as there is nothing that irritates me more than someone parking awfully and then just leaving it. 

The part of my daily routine that would be most talked about would be when I cross Willow Street to either get to campus or to get home. Every single time it’s a precarious situation, and if I was crossing any other street I would never take the risks that I do crossing Willow. However, if I want to make it anywhere on time, it requires sprinting across the street the second an opportunity arises. Even the Redbird Express has to take some risks—there have been several times where I thought I was about to witness a collision between the bus and a car. I think that fans would follow this part of my routine most closely because it would allow for the best speculation and the opportunity to place bets on whether or not I make it across safely. 

One sign that you should be friends with someone for life is when they say the same thing to your face that they’ll say when you’re not in the room. It always turns me off when someone says mean things about others when they’re not in the room. I really prefer not to gossip about others, so if someone does, it usually means that I won’t be friends with them. My favorite kind of people are the ones who say a bunch of nice things when someone leaves because it shows that they’re a genuinely nice person. 

If I was choosing who to accept, I would base it off of selfishness. Everyone should be working together to better our conditions, so I don’t want people to come who are only going to look out for themselves. Individuals like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will not be accepted. The best candidate is someone who puts their shopping cart back in the corral, stacks the dirty plates at a restaurant for the waiter, and doesn’t leave messes for others to clean up. 

A moment that made me feel like a real grown up was when I was working at Target and we experienced an emergency, and I was the oldest (20) working with a bunch of 16 year olds who I had to direct. The entire time that I was directing my coworkers, I kept wondering where the adults were, and then came to the realization that I was the adult and that all of my older, actual grown-up coworkers were not able to help in that moment. Even though I had always had conversations with my coworkers and considered them friends, it was in that moment that I realized that I was actually an adult while they were still kids.