Adaptation -- Week 14

Before I delve into the topic for this week, I want to follow up on last week's reflection post about trying to talk about the history of Thanksgiving. When I actually brought up the topic with a few family friends, the conversation drifted quickly to the idea that the victors write history. This then turned into a debate in which one of my particularly chaos-loving cousins decided to play devils advocate and contend that (maybe not so jokingly)the Sons of Liberty were literally terrorists and that many British people were assaulted and cold-bloodily harassed by colonists in the pre-Revolutionary War time period. The basic premise that was being argued after dinner was whether or not the colonists would have been historically referred to as ruthless, overly-violent terrorists if they had lost the Revolutionary war. This then began to craft a conversation in which a younger cousin innocently (probably without realizing the depth of implication he had employed) suggested that if victors write history that is in some way bias, might certain truths that we take for granted historically OR presently, be false in actuality? That's when collectively the family decided to break out the pie and avoid a rabbit hole of intellectual debate (or torture and warfare as its referred to at the Thanksgiving dinner table).

So, back to my topic for the week--adaptation. It occurred to me before leaving to come home this week that I had really been at college for over three months, and it had already become natural to my way of life. Only a very small part of my entire life has been spent here at AU, but right now it feels like everything. Back at home, seeing my family, living in my own house, sleeping in my own bed, frequenting old hometown favorites with my old hometown friends: it all felt surreal. At many times I felt like I was living someone else's life, or maybe reliving a previous lifetime of my own. However, by the time the short, chaotic, action-packed break came to a close, I felt like I was used to this old lifestyle and to the surroundings of my home. Now, back at AU once again, I feel that same uncomfortable feeling that I felt when arriving home for the first time. I know that in the next couple weeks that feeling will shake off and be replaced with a cycle of finals-related stress, only to be gained back again when I go home for winter break.

If that last paragraph seemed like a crazy, mumbo-jumbo whirlwind, that's because it was and I intended for it to be that way. The chaos and constant change a college student such as myself experiences during this time is more than enough to completely disorient and unsteady someone. Somehow, us as young humans are very good at a particular skill: adaptation. When I realized how much I've been forced to adapt, change, and reflect in my recent life, I became quite proud of my ability to be flexible in regard to instrumental changes in life, and I hope this is a skill I retain even when I'm not the same naive young freshman.