Simbarashe Runyowa ’15

I contend with my post-grad future through reflecting on age-old proverbs from my past.

As I dig deeper into my honors research, I find myself wanting less to do with evidence and numbers and longing more for storytelling, emotion and authenticity in the way I write about my subject, the country of Rwanda.

My final winter term project is participating in the Oberlin Business Scholars Program. After all 11 participants took the Myers-Briggs test, it turns out I am the only introvert among us!

So instead of me studying, why don't I analyse these essays for your entertainment?

At this point in my college career, perspective is really important. What really matters, in the larger scheme of things? Sometimes, it has to be about self-preservation.

Gather around, everyone, it's story time. Uncle Simba has a confession to make.

Incoming internationals, this one's for you. Welcome, my fellow non-residential aliens :)

In this experimental blog I reflect on my semester in France by exploring the notion of home as I move through 3 cities : Paris, Rome and Harare.

College is as much about the acquisition of knowledge as it is about the formation of selfhood.

My study abroad so far is teaching me that absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder.

I'm learning to speak Parisian, among other things.

I'm going to study abroad at the Paris Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po) in France.

I realized and then accepted that unmitigated busyness was not equivalent to productivity, but a threat to it. I learned that sometimes even doing something you love is a luxury that you should be prepared to sacrifice when faced with the exigencies of the bigger picture.

The Oberlin experience changes you in ways you don't always see as they occur but became obvious as you look back at your former self.

Obies are continuing to have conversations about progress. But in order for these conversations to be productive we must all commit to open-mindedness. It will be difficult, but ultimately necessary.

Oberlin was supposed to exemplify the post racial, post discriminatory society we hope to converge to. Instead, we are served with piercing words that are so unspeakably prejudiced.

I didn't grab no shoes or nothin' Jesus. I rayan for my life. (All the way to New York.)

What to study, what to study at Oberlin College?

Thoughts on my human rights internship at People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) in Cape Town, South Africa.

I absolutely love this city. Everywhere you go here, there is a mountain in the backdrop. It is an unbelievably scenic place.

The Clinton Global Initiative brought together over 1000 students, social entrepreneurs, and changemakers from around the world to Washington, DC, this weekend. But first, thoughts on the Hunger Games.

Orientation is a tidal wave of emotions interspersed with much shaking of hands and regurgitation of well-rehearsed soundbites ("Hi, I'm Simba. It's so nice to meet you. Where are you from?"). It was hands down the most fun part of the semester — they don't even tell you that you will have to go to class for the rest of your college career.

Final exams are upon us here at Oberlin College, which means I have acquired a fresh contingent of acquaintances. They are called Memorization and More Memorization, and, to use an American expression, we've gotten super-duper close lately.

Unsurprisingly, it turned out that sometime last week was Thanksgiving Day in the United States. I really should have been aware of this, given that my obsession with the festivities surrounding this November supper run astonishingly deep for someone who grew up in Zimbabwe where turkeys, if they ever existed there, had probably long buckled under societal pressure and just converted themselves into either chickens or cows or zebras in order to fit in.

While this is by far not the classiest thesis to have picked for my second blog post, one cannot deny that food is a subject about which blog posts ought to be written. So, ladies and gentleman, look forward to a passion-charged ramble about my favourite dining spots in and around Oberlin.

On many an occasion during and after orientation when I have had to introduce myself, I have encountered a number of interesting scenarios in which my first name ignited a hilarious chain of events.