Relationships

Although I may have rolled my eyes...I wrote this last night for a class...get a tissue.

With whom I’m in relationship:
I spent a lot of time over winter break thinking about next year. And among all the onslaught of worries of location, career, apartment, and salary…I realized the only thing I care about is my friends. I live this year in the Loj with ten stunning ladies. Some of these girls have been my friend since freshman year, and others I only met a couple of months ago: but all of them are now my life-long friends. Not only do I look up to each and every one of them for their passion and dedication to environmental and social justice…sometimes, they look to me. Whether we are laughing over a common prank, or caving into consumerism discussing new Patagonia deals…nothing we do exists on just this superficial level. The prank causes us to discuss favorite memories of the pranked and future bonding mischief; Patagonia, the environmental ethics of said company.
This is not a common Colgate living situation. We cook Community Supported Agriculture produce weekly and discuss why we should (and for the most part do) boycott bananas. Whilst debriefing Friday nights downtown, instead of talking about what she was wearing at Nichol’s we speak of racial tensions. We put on our puffy jackets instead of cranking on the heat. But our house relationships go beyond breaking life in the bubble down.
For me, the real importance of the relationships I am in with each person living on 70 Broad happens in the kitchen. It is the 100% sincerity with which my friend greets me that is truly refreshing coming down the hill. While I am dicing up some onions, she walks in, grin on her face, waving, “Hiiiii!” and proceeds to ask me with authenticity how I am. And she means it… This is what sets these relationships apart from those I have outside the house. It is so unaffected. We cook together, don’t clean together, show genuine interest in each other’s curious new Eastern remedies.
I am in a relationship with these girls because we are so similar...in ideology, in life approaches, in world-views. Alternatively, I am in a relationship with these girls because we are different. I am already in a relationship with myself…I need differences to challenge me, inspire me, keep me stoked about life. We differ in socio-economic backgrounds, in geographies, in styles, in how and by whom we were raised, in concentrations. The differing passions and majors have inspired me to learn more about social justice and, even to take the course (as many of friends are self-proclaimed feminists).