Reflection Week #1

This week was a melting pot of emotions. I was overwhelmed and then comforted, bored and then engaged, lost and then found. I simultaneously felt like I didn't belong at AU, while also feeling like it was home. The week went by so quickly and yet felt like it was dragging on. It was a week of contradictions.

However, one thing that I realized was that we are truly all in this together. We're all trying to build a new community, figure out how to best manage our time, and, most importantly, find our classes. And the best thing about that is that we all want to be here. In high school, people were required to take classes they didn't care about, and some of them simply didn't want to be in school anymore. One of the things I'm most looking forward to over these next three years is participating in the positive learning environment that exists at American, and especially within Global Scholars. Everyone is so supportive of each other's studies and will listen to what you learned about in one of your classes that day with genuine interest. I love being able to have a conversation with the person next to me about some event happening in the world today and then another person sitting across from me can tell me about how that event is related to this article they just read in another class. It's so refreshing to be in this engaged community of learning.

A map of Hurricane Dorian's path from a CBS article

Being in this community of learning is definitely making me more aware of the real world application of the things I'm learning and talking about within my classes. For example, after I finished reading The Truth About Awiti, I started to think about how the story of Awiti is connected with Hurricane Dorian, which is now a Category 5 storm. I found the whole concept of slaves' spirits creating the hurricanes that torment the Caribbean and southeast US as very fascinating. I'm not sure how much I believe in the spirit world, but the book makes the reader think about how to provide Awiti with the necessary peace so that she stops these "natural" disasters. Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas hard, a place that Awiti had tried to find peace at but failed. Its trajectory is set to hit Florida, some of Georgia, South and North Carolina, and some of Virginia, all places where slavery was prevalent and where Awiti has visited. 

Thinking about Hurricane Dorian and how much havoc it can cause makes me think about the idea of reparations to African Americans for the suffering endured through slavery and other racial injustices. I'll be the first person to admit that money cannot even begin to heal the African American community from the loss and heartbreak and suffering they've weathered, but it's the beginning of a conversation on how to create a new America where we are all truly equal and tolerant of each other.

Conversations like these are ones I hope to continue in class and in casual conversation. Even though this past week has been kind of crazy, I know this new community of learning is going to be an incredible home for the next three years.