Room of Kates

This being the first day of school, here are some things that already feel different from undergrad. And things that haven't changed at all:

1. Different: Went to gym at 8am. Never did that as an undergrad! Turns out, the tradition of undergrads never working out before noon is a time-tested one. The place was deserted.

2. Same: Walked through a diag, nearly got hit in the head with a frisbee. I have my suspicions it was of an "ultimate" nature.

3. Different: Went to the department's grad orientation. Everyone there was brilliant. We're talking Ivy League, Phi Beta Kappa, cancer research grant writers, NPR producers, real readers and thinkers. One girl was even published in...wait for it....Highlights magazine. Ye gods! ....well, everyone else seemed truly brilliant. Which is not to say UM Lit kids weren't. What it DOES say is that you can't appear talented and bright until you've been given time in the real world to make something of yourself. I felt really honored to be a  part of that group.

4. Different: As part of the writing fellowship I've been invited to participate in, I will be coaching 12 students in an undergrad course (Econ, in my case) on their papers as the semester goes by. So today I had to introduce myself to the class! The way a TA does! I was the one at the front of the lecture hall, raising my hand and giving everyone a brief hello as the professor introduced me. How weird is that?!
     Sub-Same: The kids in the class stared at me with a cool, disaffected glaze. Some things never change.
             Sub-sub-Different: Some of those kids would have been born in 1992. Jeeza.

Good first day. I feel old. Everyone in my class came straight from undergrad except the weirdos. Wait....am I a weirdo? Hahaha, yeah I am. Who am I kidding?!

But outside of the babies and weirdos, everyone does seem kinda like me. More than that...I'll be honest, it was a room of Kates. In our meet-n-greet, we had to give a fun fact for our ice breaker (yay). One girl said she keeps a sourdough starter in her pantry and has for 2 years. One girl makes her own cider. One girl taught her parakeet how to sing the Star Wars theme. A chick admitted to loving building Ikea furniture "above nearly all other things." One guy plays an ancient proto-form of Chinese chess. One chick spent her summer teaching ropes courses in a Redwood forest and is, "having a hard time adjusting to life back on the ground." How cool/eccentric are all those things? In other words, how me are all those things? I'm excited to be back in the all-embracing arms of the liberal arts.

If you were wondering, my fun fact was that my favorite book is and always will be "The Giver". The more books I read, the more I love it. But like I told some friends tonight, I wish I had told the story of the time in a rural Ireland sing-song when, after everyone sang lovely ballads, I sang the theme song from the Fresh Prince of Bellaire. But it's a long story. And maybe it paints me as more than eccentric.

More to come. Have a good Wednesday!