I have a longstanding relationship with the blinking cursor that lives within the blank, white expanse of my Microsoft Word Document. Over the course of our turbulent adventures, I’ve discovered that it’s not judgmental nor does it ever refuse my company. It’s a constant friend that I can always turn to whether creativity is pouring down on me in a rush of exhilaration, or writer’s block is looming over me and cackling in my ear while I shuffle through my brain and hope for a spark of inspiration...
I was once a lone literary crusader, slashing through commas and crossing out words efficiently. Not so as Limelight’s Copy Editor. In that position, I interact constantly with my coeditors. That was at first jarring but now feels comfortable—challenging still, but somehow right. I am most proud of the issue in which a carnivorous editor and I (a member of PETA) debated the morality of eating meat; as my coeditor and I eased into a philosophical debate, I could feel myself achieving fluency in interdependence...
When I started in Kindergarten 13 years ago, it seemed to teachers and my parents that I needed another try at starting school. So in addition to repeating Kindergarten, I was enrolled in the Special Education program in my school district and given an IEP. I have a condition similar to dyslexia that adversely affects my reading and writing. However, in elementary school I did not see myself as needing help so I did not always take advantage of support. I was working so hard to get teachers and my parents to see that I did not belong in any Special Education program, but rather I should be with the rest of the class...
It is safe to say older women have changed my life. I only have 500 words or less to tell-all, so I will save the stories behind my acting career (an older woman), Aquaponics interest (an older woman), and my mom (a younger woman), focusing on one of the most important cougars ever to cross my path: Amy Lerner...
Where is Waldo, really? Right in front of me. Cradling my dog-eared and much loved copy of Find Waldo Now, I embark on a trip through time, much like Waldo’s own journey through the ages though I do not have that creepy wizard tagging along with me. I have been trying to answer this prompt ever since I was a little kid, and I will take it one step further: Why the hell does Waldo keep getting lost?..
What are a few of my favorite things? Everything about Julie Andrews, for one, but without listing fifty million assorted books and movies, one of my most recent favorite things is composer Kenley Kristofferson’s hauntingly beautiful Venture To The Cosmos, (run, do not walk to listen to it), a choral suite in three movements that sets Carl Sagan’s words to original orchestration...
Interdisciplinary learning is not only my modus operandi, it is also my “life, my love, and my lady”, to quote the 1970s one hit wonder Looking Glass. Learning in a bubble is more prevalent then ever and it is a shame that most of academia is so hyper-specialized that solving society’s immense problems have become almost impossible in a school environment. At Evergreen State, I see the polar opposite...
The University of Chicago, as I know it now, satisfies me because I want to learn everything forever. Because I want to study geography at a world-class institution where I can also study theatre in a world-class city. Because Chicago is the only place where I can study Burgess’ urban land use policy in the classroom where he first taught it, play an Ultimate match on the Midway, and screen an original film I created in my own eleven-story arts playhouse, all in the same day...
Why Reed? Because I want to learn everything forever. Because I want to study geography, philosophy, and history at a world-class institution where I can also study theatre, writing, and film in a world-class city. Because I want to go to a place that lets me start sentences with because and then challenges me as to why...
I can feel the tension rip through the entire table. My mother stares desperately into her salad; my brother rolls his eyes at my sister who sits fuming beside me; my father turns a peculiar shade of purple. Thus, a typical dinner at the Nelson’s devolves into heated debate. Sitting at the worn kitchen table, my family is gesticulating passionately over their forgotten plate of meatloaf. While opinions are flung wildly and political beliefs come out swinging, I enter the fray confidently with a smile...
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