Oberlin Blogs

A nutshell of the rest of my Social Justice Institute experience, complete with gender-neutral pronouns and a definition of counternarratives.

I first heard about the SJI in the admissions packet I got at the beginning of the summer. It wasn't terribly clear about what exactly the SJI was going to be, but I filled out the application anyway and sent it in, figuring it would be interesting if I got in. I did, and I attended the first session of it today. I still wasn't very clear about what it was until it started. . .

Why were we there? How did the world see us?

"If we had duct tape, we'd help Klebanoff know what's good for him." - Prof. Paul Dawson speaking about Ben Klebanoff (Student Senator and wunderkind).

A few things I learned on yesterday's patrol with the Samaritans, a group that sends a group out to the desert every day looking for migrants in need of water, food, medicine or simply a friendly face.

It was by far one of the more entertaining things one could have done on Valentine's Day, and it was for a good cause. There are only so many ways to make free chocolate taste better, and that's having it come out of your nose from laughing too hard.

To learn the routes of migration, we did in a couple of easy hours what takes most migrants four excruciating days.

Today my program spent the afternoon in court. It's not what it sounds like.

So, yes, I'm eschewing that obligatory hello my name is John. I'm a blogger. I'm really cool. Here's some stuff about me post, at least for the time being. Bios are dreadfully difficult to write, and, though my fellow bloggers have been covering Oberlin's reaction to this latest election pretty darn well , I figured I might as well add my two cents.

It is hard for me to describe the atmosphere I witnessed that night, but it was certainly nothing like I had ever experienced before. Surrounded by friends and strangers, new faces and old, it hardly mattered whether you knew the person standing next to you or not--but you were inevitably going to give them a hug.

When I tell my kids where I was when this part of history was made, I will say this: I was in Oberlin. The best place in the world.

Just so you can be as cool as the rest of the voting community.