I can’t get over how beautiful this campus is. I guess I didn’t really realize how much of a difference it would make to me to be at an aesthetically pleasing school, but honestly it brightens my mood more than anything to be able to walk outside and see life everywhere. The grass here is greener than any I’ve ever seen in my life I think, and I’ve certainly never had the sensation of being surrounded by so many blossoming trees. I love lying out in the courtyard behind Slusher on sunny days… it’s like having a beach in my backyard! All I need is to step out my back door and I have sun and shade and even a little patio that people can grill on. And it’s the perfect space in terms of privacy… like, not so secluded that no one else uses it, so there’s definitely socializing going on, but definitely private enough that you don’t feel like you’re sunbathing in front of the entire school. I love being able to sleep with the window open every night, especially when we have thunderstorms (we’ve been getting a bunch lately… in fact, one’s rolling in right now) and you can smell the sweet rain scent on the cool air. I love getting to have classes outside under the trees, with their boughs heavily laden with pale pink and white flowers showering petals down on us. And, as always, I love having the mountains in the distance, giving this whole place a certain air of seclusion and gravity.
In general, now that the weather has turned into that of perfect spring, and even on certain days that of high summer (minus the humidity… there’s no humidity here), I’m really getting into partaking of some of the outdoor activities in the area. New week I’m going to an outdoor farmers’ market with the kids in my FYES class, and the week after we’re going hiking in the Cascades, which is supposed to be gorgeous. There’s an “International Street Fair” going on in Blacksburg this Saturday which should be cool (lots of international foods, music, dancing etc), and the day before that is Relay for Life. I’m doing it with all the kids from Young Dems, and it’s supposed to be a really big deal here (last year, Virginia Tech broke the record for most people participating AND most money raised ever in the history of Relay for Life). Reed and I are planning on making a trip out to Mountain Lake sometime in the next few weeks, which is another big hang-out spot this time of year (and I think you can swim there!). In general it’s just great to be able to be outdoors again, especially when there’s so much to do around here!
Besides everything I’ve already mentioned, I have a lot of other stuff going on in the coming weeks as well! As you probably have gathered from whatever varied contact you’ve had with me in the last few months, I’ve made a lot of really good friends in Young Dems, and they’re all amazing. I just love that I’ve found a group of people who like to have fun but also aren’t your typical selfish, apathetic, “just wanna party” college kids. In terms of official Young Dems events lately we’ve had a Coal Debate and a Health Care Reform Debate, both of which were so fun to organize and really informative. We also have a fundraiser at Gillies’ today (it’s a local vegan restaurant), Relay on Friday, like I mentioned, and we’ve been helping out with a lot of Pride Week events because we work closely with LGBT and have a “joint-officer” between the two groups. We have Earth Week coming up which is going to be sweet, and we’re also doing some campaigning/raising awareness about getting Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repealed. Most importantly, next weekend is the Virginia Young Democrat Convention! Eleven of us are going up to Alexandria for the weekend... we sit in on lectures, meet Virginia politicians, participate in committees, and then at night it’s basically like a big party (haha). Reed and I are both really excited for that. Outside of club stuff, we mostly just go hang out at local bars, sometimes go to movies, things like that… it’s been good, not only to hang out just purely socially, but also to get to know some of the hot spots around Blacksburg better. I’m definitely considering running for an office for next year, though I’m gonna wait and see what’s actually opening up before I make a final decision… I just feel like it’d be good to start getting leadership positions under my belt this early on. It’s all about making yourself marketable for jobs after college!
Another great thing about being a part of this group is that it’s really gotten me to get to know/make an impression on my professors better, because every time we have an event I end up going to different professors asking them to help drum up interest by making in-class announcements, offering extra credit for attendance, or even just sending out an e-mail. Like today, LGBT is showing this documentary about how gay Orthodox Jews reconcile their sexuality and their faith in ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel, and I was like “Wow, we JUST discussed Judaism and homosexuality in my Religious Ethics class yesterday, I should talk to my professor about this event!” And so I did, and I really feel like that sort of interaction makes you a lot more memorable to a professor, like demonstrating that you have a cause you’re interested in and are conscientious about things you’re learning in class when you’re outside of class. I did the same thing with my Geology and Resources Geology professors for the Coal Debate, and I even ended up getting to know a professor I don’t even have because of that- she’s an Agricultural Economics professor who came as a guest lecturer to my FYES class, and I mentioned the debate to her and she got really excited about it, so I ended up keeping in contact with her! I’m really excited to be making these connections and building these relationships so early on in my college career.
Speaking of FYES, I have to say my opinion of the Honors program has totally changed in these last few months (FYES is an Honors course, to clarify). FYES has totally opened my eyes to the potential usefulness of the program and I’ve ended up realizing that Honors has A LOT to offer. I guess I was just sort of looking in the wrong places… like, graduating with an Honors degree itself isn’t really going to impress anyone that much, and I guess that’s why I was like “What is the point of this?” But I’ve come to realize that the real beauty of the program lies in the networking potential. Honors here is one of those things where it’s like “Ooh, you’re interested in this? Get in contact with this person and tell them I sent you and they’ll hook you up.” This applies to classes you want to get into, projects you want to get in on, research you want to undertake, study abroad opportunities, internships, job opportunities, everything. Like, if you’re willing to start talking to people at the bottom about what you want to do, they WILL connect you to the people at the top that will make it happen for you. Honors also has a lot of money in grants to give to students who want to start projects. For example, two weeks ago I was talking to Jeni (our FYES teacher) about how I really want to get more involved in service activities here at Tech next year and she was like “Ooh, I know someone who works at the main office of the major service organization here on campus, I’ll have her come in a talk to us next class.” And so she did, and she told us a little about herself- she’s now a graduate student here and also employed by the school to work with this service program, because when she was a FRESHMAN she had an idea for a project in which students at Virginia Tech get in touch with a particular community in Honduras (I forget the name now) and help them improve their town and distribute information to the citizens of this town. She talked to people until she got higher and higher up in terms of the people with authority to actually make this happen and she got her program funded and created! Now she actually teaches an Honors class every semester in which the students break into groups and actually work on solving real problems in this town, in close communication with the actual leadership in the town, such as water purification, food security, improving the schools… they’re solving REAL problems for real people. Some of them also go to the town every summer to see how their ideas are being implemented. I just thought it was so amazing that this girl had an idea (a really ambitious idea!), talked it up, made it happen, and as a result she’s not only helping people, she got offered a job here and is making a career out of her passion. I just thought that was so awesome.
Which brings me to a major realization I’ve had. I want to, need to do something extraordinary with my college career. I’ve come to realize that it isn’t enough in the modern world to just graduate with your degrees, your majors and your minors, your fantastic GPA (and this is assuming your GPA WILL be fantastic) and your extracurriculars and your experience working at $8.00 an hour jobs. That’s not enough to make you marketable in the modern world. You need to have something special, something that shows you’re ambitious, creative, engaged with the world- you need a project, something you can call you own. You need actual experience… not a list of “I’ve worked at Busch Gardens, Starbucks, the diner down the street”, but real work experience that applies to the real world. No where but in college are you ever going to have all the resources- the money, the mentors, the body of interested potential participants, the access to research, the facilities- to do something this epic. So I’m looking for my big idea, my project… because at the end of four years, I don’t want to feel like I just went through 100-something hours of classes, got a little piece of paper saying I have this degree, and that’s all I got out of it. I really want to do something that’s gonna make prospective employers see that I’ve gone above and beyond, that I didn’t just go to classes and work on the weekends. I want to have done something special, to have been more than a participant- to have been a leader and a creator of something.
Connecting this back to FYES, I feel like I’m already getting hooked up with some great opportunities that are gonna get me going in the right direction. For one thing, I’m really excited that Jeni is staying here next year because she got offered a job with Study Abroad, because she’s someone I’m definitely comfortable talking to, someone I can ask a million questions about a million different things, and someone who knows so many people in so many different fields and is definitely all about helping her students with networking. So I’ll have her as another resource next year to continue to help get me introduced to the right people and into the right programs. There are also a few programs Jeni’s recommended to me that I’m interested in… one is a sort of club here that’s called something like “Women in Leadership and Philanthropy”, and you have to apply to get in and everything but if you do you get paired up with a mentor who has connections in whatever field your studying and can help get you internships, jobs, scholarships, grants, etc. These women are, like, mostly “distinguished alumni” I think, and they live all over the country but they fly back here a couple times a year just to meet with you and help get you the information and the connections you need to do what you want to do, and help you formulate a long-term plan of sorts. I think this would be great (networking again, haha) and also it obviously looks really spectacular on resumes. The other thing I’m interested in is this program that does D.C. internships over the summer (Jeni was also a Poly Sci. major, which is why she was able to recommend this in particular to me), and I know less about it but definitely think it’s worth pursuing because obviously a D.C. internship is (again) going to look great on a resume, get you lots of real life experience and connections, and of course it’d be totally awesome to live in D.C. for a summer! So that’s really exciting.
I feel like with all these plans forming and coming together, with my majors and minors and ideas for service and leadership positions and things to join and ambitions to pursue, I’m finally getting a real picture of what I want college to be like for me. All along I’ve known what I DON’T want college to be- I don’t want to let my relationship be my life, I don’t want to party that much, I don’t want to not get A’s in my classes- but now I’m finally seeing what I do want. I’m starting to understand why everyone says college is the most exciting time of your life, and starting to understand that that excitement doesn’t have to be generated from getting drunk every weekend or doing stupid shit with your friends or even meeting the person you want to spend the rest of your life with (which obviously I’ve already done). I’m feeling really good about how everything’s working out and in general I feel like this has been a really life-changing semester. I literally have not had a single class I don’t LOVE, which I think it a really good sign that I’m pursuing the right things. I’ve gotten to be close with a bunch of new people who I’ve had fun with AND been able to have a deeper relationship with based on mutual values and interests. I’ve completely fallen in love with this school and totally adjusted to being here. And I’m getting some really big ideas for my life. I think all of these are really good things.
Ooh, another thing about getting big ideas for my life! I’ve made an important decision. It all started when I got handed a pamphlet walking across the Drill Field one day earlier this week. It was sponsored by, like, the vegan club here on campus (no, I am NOT becoming vegan, haha) and I decided to actually read it. It talked a lot about the cruelty that animals endure in the huge factories where they’re harvested for people to eat. It was so disgusting… like, I feel like everyone knows those animals aren’t treated well, but hearing about the specifics and seeing the pictures really hit home. Pigs are kept in stalls too small for them to turn around, much less walk. Their tails are docked in such a way that it’s extremely painful for them to be touched afterwards, which is especially cruel considering the fact that these pigs constantly bite each others tails because they’re weaned from their mothers too early and so they retain an urge to bite and suck all of their lives. Hundreds of thousand arrive at slaughterhouses already dead because of the awful conditions under which they’re transported. They leave dead animals in the cages with live ones, and sometimes when they begin to rot they just put them in the aisles between cages. The way the kill them is also incredibly inhumane, with many of them being boiled alive. And this is an animal that is actually more intelligent than a dog. Chickens and other poultry have it equally as bad. Because of the enormous amounts of waste that accumulate in their tiny cages (dozens of birds are put in one cage), ammonia accumulates and burns the birds’ skin and eyes. Like pigs, dead chickens are left in cages with the live ones. One picture showed a HUGE dumpster behind a hatchery filled with male chicks, because they aren’t of value to the egg-laying industry. The alternative to this is that they are gassed or ground up alive. Also, to stop the chickens from pecking at each other, they cut off their beaks in such a way that’s incredibly painful, and some starve to death because they never learn how to eat properly after this. Chickens in particular also start to display unnatural behavior as a result of this kind of treatment- they begin cannibalizing the other birds and rubbing their bodies against the bars of their cages until they’re featherless and bleeding. Also, because they are not mammals, it is not required that they are rendered insensible to pain before they are killed by federal law (although the reality is, many mammals are also not rendered insensible to pain successfully before being killed). Ooh, and the other thing is, chickens that are advertised as being “free range” usually have it almost as bad a regular chickens. Outside of their cages there is a two-foot-wide, three-foot-long metal chute, and the door to their cage is opened an hour a day (keeping in mind that there are still a dozen chickens per cage) so that they can go out. It’s a very misleading label, and a very dishonest practice. So I just feel like I can’t continue to condone something I think is so wrong… and I view it as being even more personal than that. I mean, what could be more personal than the food we put into our bodies every day? I don’t want that kind of ENERGY going into my body, eating foods that have been produced in such an unethical way. So I’ve decided that starting over the summer/next year, I’m going to research the practices of various food companies and try to figure out which ones are the most ethical in their treatment of animals, and then try to find a local store or market that caters to these kinds of concerns. I know that there are smaller companies that are committed to better treatment of the animals they raise and harvest, I just need to find out who they are and where I can buy their products. I know this is going to be a lot of work and more expensive too, but I just feel like I’d rather spend my time and money doing something I can feel good about than buying that many more shirts or going out to each that many more times.
Well, I guess that’s about all I have to say for now… I’m excited to see all of you in a month or so! Ooh, and I don’t know if Bailey’s talked to all of you about a possible Florida trip this summer, but she said you were all invited and I hope we can all go because it’s going to be awesome! Keep bloggin’ everybody J.
-Lizz
