Hypertext Blog Reflection

As apprehensive as I was about blogging my thoughts to the whole world, the connection with the internet developed my knowledge on the class topics more thoroughly. The class discussion combined with the blogs of myself and my classmates kept the class in motion throughout the week. Our continuous digital discussions created a wealth of information on each other as well as our assignments.This digital method of organizing and sharing my thoughts added a modern relevance from the topics to my learning. 

Blogging helped digitally "free write" my mind while discussing large, uncomfortable, or compelling topics this semester. Throughout each blog post I tried to organize my thoughts for both my own benefit and in order for the "people of the internet" to understand them. Normally, I have jumbled and, often times, too many thoughts on one subject at one time. In my blog post on Smith and Watson's autobiographical tool tips I organized my thoughts through bullet pointing under each question for one, overhead tool tip. Since the writing form of the blog was so open and digital (my comfort zone) it gave me the freedom of thinking as much as I wanted to about each question while still keeping an organized flow of information for others. I also used a similar method in a comparison between two of Translations largest characters. Translations had three acts that marked clear sections of change for an outside reader, and my inclusion of them in this blog post exemplifies the characters' transitions. While it connects with oIutside readers, the post deciphers my thoughts into meaning for the political situation in Ireland as well as the characters. Clear organization through digital blogging tools allowed my thoughts to be open but cohesive for both me and outside viewers.

Other times, the blog put a face to a name and deepened my reading, interest, and connection to the topic. While blogging connects directly to the internet, it was easy to search for images or people, artwork, or places relevant to the subjects I struggled with. For example, Girl, Interrupted discussed facets of womanhood in the sixties through the harsh conditions of a rehabilitation center. As random as my post on Elizabeth Moss, who played "Torch" in Girl, Interrupted, seemed, it helped connect me with the material. While I discussed her ironic role in Mad Men (a show I really like) as a successful woman in the sixties in comparison to "Torch", I broadened my understanding of the range of "female" roles. The pictures I added also show the extremes compared to each other as well as a woman of today and strengthen this point even further. I also included helpful images in my post on Pierre Bonnard. The author of Circling My Mother's inclusion of art by Pierre Bonnard gave me a connect to the work. Through posting about the artwork I gained a better understand of the mood and specific details in the story. Adding images to difficult topics helped form more intelligent and aware thoughts during class discussions. 

Connecting to the class through a blog occasionally included pitching my ideas for its assignments to my peers. For the first research assignment I'd be proposing an argument on whether or not Woolf's argument held water. Later in the class, we discussed a close reading blog post and if we succeeded or not. In my Close Reading post I practiced analyzing evidence on one of the stories I'd be including in the assignment. The chance to pitch my ideas to the class gave me insight on what I need to work on with my writing. The blog gave me a method of exploring ideas I was interested in while practicing for assignments in front of the whole class.

Blogging for Lives and Times gave me a real outlet to test my thoughts against the internet as well as my classmates. Keeping it interesting for both parties became its toughest challenge but greatest reward. The thought of my posts being out in the world forced me to keep them organized. Its connection the internet also allowed me to search for other, sometimes outside, connections to the topic. Bringing in outside interests, images, and organization partly helped my learning, but it also made it appealing to someone who might be looking at the blog. It's as if I tried to sell my ideas to others through interesting and appealing topics, and therefore connected them to my thoughts. My knowledge of the internet community compared to the classroom community brought a hybrid type of discussion, but an effective one for my learning.


Extra Credit Responses: "The Yellow Wallpaper" library exhibit viewing

Outline for Second Brief

Goal:

To connect religion to Satrapi's identity.
To show how "her" religion backfired or became corrupt
How she fits into it now, or how she shows her personality through the corrupt religion.

important Female laws under the Islamic republic for Satrapi/her family

• the veil (or other proper appearances)
• follows the law but not to a T
• doesn't wear it correctly/wears makeup
• does not wear it at home
• strict schooling values (elementary and college)
• in elementary she went along with them
• in college she stuck up for herself/beliefs
• cannot be with a man she is not related or married to.
• 
  

What do these laws say about her

• to her family/friends
• they don't really discuss her outer appearances
• they let her have her own interests
• they dress like her
• they only care when her appearance shows sign of depression
• to the law
• she is a "fallen" woman
• whore, prostitute, slut, etc.
• she is an object
• she doesn't have voice
• to herself
• she is a rebel
• she is/isnt attractive (depends)
• she is artistic
• as a child she was always confident too

How does she over come these judgments

• she tries to commit suicide
• she finds somewhere to show her personality in "public" without disobeying the law completely
• art
• parties
• different jobs
• leaves

How will my screenplay amplify this to connect with her relationship with god

• she chooses to follow a religion
• she chooses to be herself as well
• through religion
• discusses her goals with childlike image of god. 

Satrapi and God

In her graphic novel, Satrapi combines a huge amount of politics with the outcomes of her own life. During her adventure, she sends her childhood image of "God" away and he never returns again to her life.

God might represent her childhood views of Iranian or herself or both. This part of her might have been what needed to grow in order for her to move on from her Iranian identity crisis.

In my screenplay I would like to discuss where he might have returned to her. I believe this occurs during her suicide attempt. She blacks out for around three days while her parents are gone. At this point she had left, had her teenage/political break down in Vienna and returned back to Iran. Mostly I find it interesting that her real breakdown occurs after she returns to the point where she tries to overdose on medication. When she wakes up she discusses how she doesn't know what compelled her to get up or why she is still alive (even her doctor does not know). In my opinion, that's about as divine as it gets. I believe during her black out her mind was still working enough to have a conversation about her identity, where she was headed, and how she might try to get there with her childhood "god" character.

My scene might include from the original graphic novel:

• Satrapi's "God" character with the appropriate characterizations
• The present state of Iran (when she blacks out)
• it's connection with her identity
• political views ?
• the veil ?
• A flashback to the moment when she shut god out of her life
• Satrapi's characteristics

Some original pieces of my scene might include:

• A new conversation with God
• A motive to wake up
• schooling 
• schooling in Tehran ?
• self-assured
• Life-like scenery? keep Animation?

This event in the book was really important to me and was not stressed enough in the film as her real exit from her depressed state. Although later she encounters more struggle, her Iranian identity is much more solidified after she awakens from the suicide attempt. A screenplay of what went through her mind during the blackout might be an interesting spot to bring back her connection with "god"

"Servants" of the Map

While reading Servants of the Map I began to think about what exactly this title means to the story. 

• The obvious answer is that Max Vigne feels like a "servant" to the map. His job is simply to graph (mathematically/draw) the mountain peaks. This map will probably be published under someone else's name, given to wealthy consumers, and Max's efforts will go unaccredited.

I also thought about what it might mean for Clara and Max as couple

•  Also, pretty obviously, their relationship becomes secondary to the completion of the map. While Max is away it becomes strained and unrecognizable to him at times. to cope, he focuses, or wills to, only on his work completing the map.

Most importantly though, Max's entire personality changes near the end of the story. I asked myself whether or not he was still a servant to the map or the titles implications of the ending. 

• His botanical work still seems to "serve" or follow the map, but in a more controlled way. This time, Max will create the map himself through the "maps" of moss and plant locations. His self confidence to choose botanical work changes the the "servant" to the outcome of his research. His research depends on the map, but the map is created by himself. It's as if he broke out of "servitude" or his current job, became his own boss, and created different servants to put it in simple terms. 
• It brings all kinds of cheesy slogans about the job market to mind like "its a dog eat dog world", etc. Plus, when one person leaves a job for a better opportunity/failure, the next person in line moves up, someone new gets hired for the lowest job when everyone moves up. Work ethic has its own life cycle. 
• I think this is ironic considering Max is obsessed with Darwin and Plant life which rely on ecosystems and the "circle of life." He broke out of a work cycle/ecosystem and entered/created a new one for himself. Its interesting that the title deeply relates to work ethic and the cycle of life for its characters. 

Owen/Manus in Translations

These two characters change plays throughout the entire play of translations. Although I am not sure transformation occurs I believe this information represents a shift of opinions in Ireland during National Oridnance Survey. It could also represent the uneasiness of opinions of the Irish

Manus is a lame, intelligent, poor, and underpaid son of Hugh. He teaches at the hedgeschool, but seems quiet and submissive to his father when his own intelligence might even surpass Hugh's. Owen is quite the opposite. He is arrogant, wealthy, has left home to join the English military, but he does still speak Gaelic.

In Act one-

We are introduced to both characters and their descrbed personalities. Manus has a particular moment with Sarah (a student in the school) where his compassion for the Irish and their language shows.He discusses his father's whereabouts with her using hand signals and few words.

In Act two-

We being to see Owen defending his Irish heritage while making the new English map with an officer. However, Owen still moves along with the military's orders as planned. While discussing the places on the map that they are renaming he begins to see the absurdity and how the original names connect with his heritage.

Also during this Act Manus finds out that an officer is "stealing" his "girlfriend"

In Act three-

It opens on a conversation with Owen and Manus. Manus is in a hurry to leave because he afraid that he is the reason the officer who "stole" his girlfriend went missing. He leaves his future job, his students, and his home for a new life.

Owen on the other hand seems to stay. He seems to feel a new connection to his home. The rvidence of this comes from a conversation with the same student Manus had one with in Act one. Just like the first conversation, Owen discusses his father's whereabouts with Sarah using few words and hand signals.

A new kind of compassion has come to Owen of his home and at the same time has left Manus

Persepolis - The Movie

I wasn't really crazy about the movie on its own because it seemed to have a very disorganized timeline. I'm not sure if this is because I know the order of events in the book or if people who have only seen the movie have felt this way. By skipping important events (such as her mother's visit to Vienna) I felt kind of lost in the animation. However, I did think the present day being in color cleared things up the few times the scene appeared.

Things the movie added to my knowledge of events in the book:

• The biggest component the animation added was weight to the corpses and multitudes to the people walking the streets. These items really put the gruesome events of the wars and the people's demand for revolution in the book seem more intense, graphic, and much much larger events.  Before, these events seemed to be small compared to the life story of Satrapi. Now, they add much more to the graphic world scenerey effecting Satrapi.
• The sound effects however, kept the aspect of childhood interpretation. One scene in particular where Anoosh's uncle is executed, the gun makes a popping sound instead of an actual gunshot. It reminded me of one of those popping, cork guns my brother would put next to my ear and annoy me with. It truly captured a child's interpretation of the event while still showing the weight of the death. 
• The colorful "present" day sequences gave me some extra perspective of Satrapi's interpretation of herself. It also showed how everything seemed dull around her in the airport of Vienna (?). She was the brightest object in the scene making her thoughts or reactions the most important.
• It also did not occur to me how big of a part speaking french was in her life. I'm not if her family speaking french is only for the movie. However, it did show me how important her french schooling must have seemed to her parents and how difficult it was to transition back into Iranian culture when she returned. It really made her problem of not ever being able to fit in stick out because she speaks french in Iran, but in Vienna no one understood her perspective of life. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Exhibit

The whole library exhibit

Drawings of The Yellow Wallpaper

The library exhibit on the Charlotte Perkins Gilman added many components to the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", for me.

The first addition to my information of the story and author was her drawings of key scenes in the story. I work much better visually and it formed a more well-rounded picture of the narrator in the story's surroundings. In the image to the right are these drawings. The top drawing is of the bars on the windows of the narrators designated room. I always thought the bars were either figurative or were there for the children who occupied the room before her. Her attachment to the window in the image leads me to believe the bars were put on to keep the narrator in. The drawing in the bottom right shows the narrator discovering the "other woman" trapped inside the wallpaper. I believe this character now represents not only the narrator being trapped but also Gilman's actual hallucinations during the treatment. It adds a new level of the amount of stress put on the narrators mind in the story not just representation of being trapped as a female. The last drawing added the most to the story for me. One of the suggestions during our class discussion was that her husband killed himself and the narrator's word "fainted" was only because of her delusion. Clearly in the drawing he did not kill himself but he did faint and she did crawl over him. However the personality of the narrator is more caring in the drawing. In the story she just crawls right over him, but the drawing shows her trying to pull him up. It changes the mental state of the narrator to a more "sane" or caring one instead of a dominant one.

Life events of Gilman

The other additional information I gathered was Gilman's personal history. How she grew up in particular helped me contextualize The Yellow Wallpaper. Her first (unhappy) marriage and child also added to this. Her life as a woman had been typical up to the point of "The Yellow Wallpaper". In my paper I wrote on her purpose for writing the Yellow Wallpaper. She had so much to break free from as child, wife, and mother. "The Yellow Wallpaper" acted as an actual form of therapy for her as well as to show others what rest-cure did to women. It was interesting to see my theory of writing as therapeutic play out through her life. Her childhood was torn by her father and her unhappy marriage with a dominant husband pushed her to understand her place as a woman. When she had to endure rest cure it must have been the last straw before she wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" to touch upon her thoughts of it. 

The rest of her history included in the exhibit was situated after the story was written. She re-married and reunited with her daughter, and she lived a happier life. Her story had paid off for her as well as somewhat in the medical world.

Persepolis "Current Events" Response

• What are your reactions to this decision and the subsequent reaction by students, faculty, and the media? 

At first I was appalled at the thought of censoring something to students, but then I started thinking like a teacher and the platform you stand on as an educator. I believe their concerns about the book are valid, but an outright ban would underestimate the students. 7th-12th Grade students (a lot of times even younger) have seen violence, profanity, and harsh imagery. Teaching educators how to present and discuss this type of material would help out a lot of students cope with these sort of experiences. So, I was especially impressed when Barbara Byrd-Bennett asked schools to train their teachers with this content. I also believe Satrapi's memoir would be a perfect example of this material because it is so current, but also a new material for students. 

Also, just like any situation, media and extreme opinions seem to blow it out of proportion. The question of democracy near the middle of the article shows the media's attraction to the story. I also wondered who might have wanted the book out of schools. The way extreme opinions effect the students and public worried me most. 

It reminded me of the kind of decisions I'd have to make in my own classroom, or just in life, to set an example of how to react to that sort of violence or harsh experiences. 

The young students responses to Satrapi exemplify how much students know and how faculty and media should not underestimate their capacity to understand. 

• Why do you think this book has been targeted? Why now?

I believe the book has been targeted partly because it is on material that is (even loosely) connected with 9/11 and the always feared "threat" to democracy. I also believe that graphic novels get a bad rap in the educational world as non-valid sources of education. These novels are becoming really popular and students will see them more often, but they have't been as accepted by educators. 

• What are your thoughts about book censorship? Is it ever appropriate? What is lost/gained with such decisions? 

I believe at a certain point book censorship is appropriate. I only believe this because in a public place, like a school, everyone will say their opinion about books, etc. that is appropriate for the public. Although the public gains some type of peace (or at least someones opinion was satisfied), the public also misses out on a learning experience. 

• For the future educators in the class, who should ultimately make decisions about curriculum? The teacher? The principal? Does it matter that this is for 7th-graders? Should there be a procedure put in place? In other words, it could be argued that the "questionable content" is not entirely "questionable", but this decision might be best explored through dialogue. How would that work? Would that work?

I think the fact that it regards 7th graders is the real conflict I have with this "ban". I feel as though the amount of experiences a student has lived through in this day and age is different from the curriculum they are learning. Denying them a book that might relate to them while teaching a new method (such as reading a graphic novel, or dealing with these life experiences, etc.) denies to them a more meaningful/valuable education. It takes a higher level of cognitive learning (such as creativity, analysis, evaluation) out of their education and only leaves basic memorization and comprehension. (which is a real problem with education today)

As for who should decide curriculum, I believe the students deserve more input. Of course they will want something "cool" or new like a graphic novel, but if that method works for them as well as teaches them a NEW valid method of learning then it deserves to be in the curriculum. Questionable dialogue comes up in most schools by students (on accident or on purpose) anyway. I feel the best idea is to have dialogue on how to handle it. How can education make that questionable content a teachable moment? Ignoring the content only enables the student to speak without thinking in the future. 

Going through the process of becoming a teacher has taught me to think with both my student brain and my teacher brain. This is a subject they both agree on. 

Smith & Watson

Gordon draws on a ton of different types of narrative, point of view, art, and methods of exploring herself throughout her memoir. Smith & Watson's tools helped me decipher a few conclusions we drew in class that captured such huge topics. A few of the tool-tips were especially helpful:

Trauma Tool-Tip- 

• Do the traumatic memories come to the fore fragmentarily, repeatedly, throughout the narrative?
• Undoubtedly, Gordon shows her trauma through fragments of memories and storytelling throughout the memoir. Putting spaces between different memories, out of order, show her fragmented state of mind and exemplify her trauma. I'm not sure whether this was done deliberately or if it was laid out based on how she dealt with writing on a sensitive topic.
• Does the narrator struggle to speak the unspeakable?
• Mary, the narrator, oddly finds the words for her memories of her younger mother , she also finds the words for the negative images of her mother. However, when memories collide with her own image of herself in combination with that of her mother she struggles. She begins to use art and other vessels (prayer, her father, writing, perfume research) to show her connection and character. I believe this reveals not only a sensitivity to the subject, but and uneasiness of her self-image (?)
• Does the narrator discuss the therapeutic effects of writing?
• Although she never outright says that the writing of her memoir is therapeutic, Gordon always comes back to the idea of "needing" or "having" to write this book. It clearly serves some sort of purpose for herself.

Audience and Addressee Tool-Tip-

• Is there a person to whom this text is specifically addressed?
• The daughter of Mary is who it is addressed. This addressee is important because it shows the full circling moment of grandmother-mother-daughter. Gordon's daughter, Anna, is clearly named after Gordon's mom, who the text is written about/not about. Although Gordon deals with becoming a mother to her mother, she also becomes a mother to Anna. Anna "makes sense of everything". I believe the fact that throughout the whole book Gordon is dealing with loss and self-reflection through her mother she sees the best traits of both through her daughter. 
• The title also alludes to this approach, "Circling my mother" 
• What kind of reader does this text ask you to be?
• This question was very interesting for me. I believe that through art, Gordon tries to empathize with her readers and connect with them. One of the choices laid out by Smith and Watson for a type of reader was a sympathetic one or a therapeutic one. Gordon continually explains her mothers current existence through her own connection with art in combination with stories from her mother's past. This tactic not only connects the reader with something cultural but it is also relevant and personal to the author in order for the reader to empathize with and become a source of therapy for the author. 

Art History in the Memoir

As an Art Major I don't care for art history very much. I never have. It's not that I don't heavily respect the artists before me or learn from the greats (Albrecht Durer being my favorite), but I always found it somewhat crazy to try to compare my work to Leonardo's work to mine.

In the first few pages of Circling My Mother, Mary Gordon starts connecting everything to Bonnard's work. I took the liberty of looking up some of his pieces because I had never heard of him before. I suddenly understood both why I'm an art major and what Gordon was trying to communicate. 

Mary Gordon describes a very important fact about his works. They are all very light, colorful, and playful, but they are most definitely not happy. His wife, Marthe, was suffering. He held this incredible sadness in such light, flighty colors. She uses this to describe her mother and much of the on-goings of her mothers life and surroundings. She particularly compares her mother to Marthe when she describes how she somewhat drowned in isolation. 

Mary's mother stays in this nursing home with fluorescent lights and old people smell. She sits by herself all day sometimes, with her head in her hands. Mary states that she's unsure if her mother even thinks at all when shes like that. Her mother likes sweets and flowers. 

The sweets, flowers, and her surroundings ultimately bring me back to Bonnard's paintings of hazy color. Mary's mother is enjoying them though no one knows why or how. He surroundings are bright but her situation is grave, and life keeps moving around her. Like the colors of Bonnard's paintings, Mary's mother is lost in an out of mind experience without feeling and mary herself relates to the colors by sheer uncertainty. 

17

Sasha,

Though I would not ever erase anything that has happened in our life for fear of taking away the future we have created, there is an unnecessary damage that could have been avoided. Right now, at age seventeen, you are damaging your relationship based on events in the past. You are forming an image of men that doesn't, and never will, exist anywhere but in your past.

You feel that it has to do with the past men you have chosen, but it also has to do with those who should have chosen you. Though your concerns are valid, you are at fault for allowing it to form your judgments and accusations of the new people in your life.

This person is different. This person is trusting, loyal, and loving. This person has not ever lied to you. He does not keep secrets, his words have no ulterior motives, he understands your crazy, and the levels of your pain. He values you as a person and as his best friend. It is a mantra you need to start repeating. Start repeating it, draw it, learn it, and let his love in.

It is honest and true.

The amount of forgiveness and understanding that has come from this man deserves a better image in your mind.

Love,
A Stronger Us.

Peggy & Torch

These two women are characters in a movie and TV series that have a particular focus on women in the 1960's. They also happen to be played by the same actress, Elizabeth Moss.

Elizabeth Moss

Peggy Olson

Peggy Olson is from the TV series Mad Men, about a big time accounting firm and all of its dirty secrets. Peggy started as a secretary and worked her way up to a writer's position. Peggy defies the laws of "60's womanhood" by throwing out the possibility of becoming a domestic housewife. In the middle of the series she has a baby, but gives it to her own mother to raise in order to pursue her career farther. She also owns her own apartment, has her own secretary at the firm, and has a few different boyfriends throughout the series.

Polly (Torch)

Torch, on the other hand, is trapped at Claymore, a mental health institution, in the movie Girl, Interrupted. Torch burned herself as a child and was deemed clinically insane. However, Lisa, another mental patient, notices how Torch loves to act like a child and doesn't want to leave the mental health institution. Torch seems to retreat to childhood in order to escape the fate of becoming a woman in the 1960's.

These two characters seemed to resemble two sides of the same coin for me. Peggy works her butt off to be respected by the men at her accounting firm while Torch hides behind her scar and toys. The TV series and movie also seem to represent the same coin by depicting women in the 1960's either successful, quiet, or insane. I found it ironic that these two characters were played the same actress, but it helped to see the two (theatrical) extremes of the decade.

Close Reading

              The yellow wallpaper in the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, represents the narrator's feeling of imprisonment as a woman. The narrator hides her writing from her husband in a room with yellow wallpaper. The room traps her while she gains back her health from "nervous condition", and her writings become consumed with notes about her hatred of the yellow wallpaper. The narrator hints at her oppression when she states "I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal-- having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition" (Perkins Gilman 368). This quote alludes to the side of the narrator that wishes to accomplish greater goals in life. However, after journal entry that reflects this personality, the narrator apologizes for opposing her husband. Near the end of the story the narrator gives way to her illness and this rebellious side of her personality. She exclaims this quote to her husband: "'I've got out at last,' said I, 'in spite of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!'" (Perkins Gilman 380). This quote shows the narrator breaking free of the room with the wallpaper that traps her under her husbands command. The yellow wallpaper signifies the narrators ripping away at her husbands rules for both her health and life.

Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Trans. Array Anthology of the American Short Story. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 367-380. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. <https://bblearn.saintmarys.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-234339-dt-content-rid-322604_1/courses/HUST103.03-04.201420/Gilman - Yellow Wallpaper.pdf>.

Discovery of Yourself

My first home at SMC

Before attending Saint Mary's College it was my dream to attend the University of Notre Dame. I grew up in South Bend, IN where that is the dream of a lot of students even knowing how "impossible" it is to be accepted into Notre Dame. While applying for schools though I noticed that Saint Mary's had the exact program I wanted to be involved in, Art Education. I really found myself wanting to combine assets of the two schools (yeah right). I applied to both Notre Dame and Saint Mary's because my mom's job at ND covers my full tuition at both of them, and I knew I wanted to stay close to home.

When I got my rejection letter from ND (actually I got two counting the one notifying my mom), I think I cried for a full day.


Thinking back to that time in high school, I really want to kick myself in the butt for ever second guessing Saint Mary's. Now I'm even telling my younger sister how much I want her to attend Saint Mary's, particularly because she also loves art. Even though the reason I ended up at Saint Mary's seems shallow and simple the reason I plan to stay here, why I work here, and desperately want to move back to campus is because SMC gave me something I never had. It gave me numerous opportunities, I don't think I've ever been told I couldn't do something since I walked through the door, I'm never afraid to ask questions, and I have the most educational support I've had in my life. Sometimes it even comes from girls who barely know me.

First Portfolio Review - Out in the open

I think my empowerment at Saint Mary's comes from the fact that it is a small school where I can get the attention I need. I think it comes from being a single-sex campus where I can feel 100% comfortable walking around outside at 11PM in my pajamas. I think it comes from a focus on liberal arts education that opens your mind social inequalities and connects them to your interests and values. I don't think I would've ever had this experience without Saint Mary's College.

The Cousins

There's a house in middle-of-nowhere West Virginia that has become sacred to my cousins and I. It rests between two edges of wooded area that encloses the large, hilly backyard. This backyard contains not only woods, a small horse shed, and a very huge pine tree, but also almost all of our childhood memories together. We played on a broken, makeshift swing set. We learned to climb to the very top of our favorite pine tree. We found the ruins of an old brick house in the woods. We built forts, played in leaves, ran until we couldn't anymore, and caught tadpoles in the old bathtub behind the shed. Our adventures started here and almost always ended with a bonfire and roasted marshmallows, or occasionally a cut or bruise.

Grandma yelling at us to wear long pants and shirts to protect us from poison ivy did not stop us from crossing the property line in the woods. Of course we never got lost because the woods sloped downward and to find the house all you had to do was follow the hill back up. By the time you hit the field in the back of the woods you knew to turn back. One of my favorite memories is finding a fort that two of my older cousins built eight years after they built it. They never told us where they built it except that it was on the property line. My cousin Yancie and I had stopped to rest at it's ruins and remembered what it was! The woods made the backyard never-ending along with our adventures.

I have so many memories in this backyard with people who are not only related to me, but are also my closest friends. The house belongs to my grandma and grandpa and most of it was also built by them and other family members. As I grew up, I lived in a lot of houses and moved numerous times, but this house never, ever changed. The backyard is where my cousins and I grew together. It contains our childhood together. It matters the most now because even though most of us are growing into adults, there's no way we'd pass up a chance to find a new adventure in the backyard of our grandparents familiar house.