August 25, 2008

• Unrelated subjects...

  Because of an episode I had yesterday evening which ended with me to leaving work abruptly while clutching my stomach, I now ponder what the food I eat will look like if it decides it doesn't want to stay down. Makes one think about what one eats no?

  Aside from that interesting bit about my week, I attended the first orientation meeting at my department in order to welcome and awkwardly mingle with the incoming M.A.'s and a few of my old professors. I am a mentor, as I may have mentioned (though I get the sense that I'll end up being mentored myself by her since she has that academic earnestness I lost a while ago...or perhaps never had). I fianlly met my mentee today, and she didn't look like I expected. I'm not quite sure what I expected really...someone shorter maybe. A little more nervous. She didn't seem nervous, though perhaps she was (in which case she'll have to teach me a thing or two about body language).  She seemed nice though, and it shall be interesting getting to know them all.

  Now, I'd like to mention that I don't often talk about race, race relations or ethnicity because quite frankly I'm almost certain any conclusion or thoughts I come up with will have already been said.We are interesting people, humans, and we will, I think, always find a way to label and title and categorize because its the easiest way for our brains to understand. Anyway, I say all this to segue into the interesting fact that there is a new black male in the English dept. This is exciting because he's probably the first black man (student anyway...there's one black male professor) to be in that place in...years. This is also exciting because he is unconventional in his interests (SciFi and fantasy...which are right up my alley). What I'm wondering though, is if this is also exciting because he's a black male and I'm a black female...and well we tend to gravitate towards people who look like us (though, romantically I can't say I discriminate)? And he's male? LOL. This is ridiculous. I don't even want to entertain the thought of dating or even casual evenings talking about science fiction. The fact of the matter though, is that I am excited. I texted two people after I left the meeting to let them know of my new found discovery. All I said was there's a new black male in the department! I sent it to my sister and one of my best friends. My friend told me to calm down. My sister responded "Hmm. Is he cute?" Apparently the assumption on both ends was that I was interested. In the end I agree with my sister. It's simply...refreshing to see a different kind of face. Yay for diversity.

  • 2:54 pm
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