Thnks fr th Mmrs

Thank-you


for the nights in the Harper Hall lobby watching youtube videos and "studying" for calculus and chemistry

for flag decorations and watching the OC instead of studying

for the Freshman Forum meetings when Amanda was there... and we ignored her

for progressive stories in Chem and at Steak N Shake

for the first time I saw the eagle fly

for the Little Lovers socials

for Harper Hotties

for the lemonade debacle of 2008 O-Days

for unplanned trips to Tuscaloosa

for the 3am crisis calls

for choreography parties

for Greg and Kenneth parties

for 603 parties

for night's at Stuart and Paul's

for ridiculous warm-ups and Elijah Rock for the 3rd time

for Little Shop rehearsals (and the semester of I can't, I have rehearsal)

for failed attempts to have a youtube show

for successful musical scripts (if only we'd finish those last 2 monologues)

for Greased Lightning and Chattanooga Choo Choo... both better the 300th time around

for the nights in the SGA office... even when I wasn't in SGA

for creativity nights with fiction writing, painting, and John Mayer

for photo shoots at Samford and in Opelika

for the 2am drive back from Georgia. "You know what they say... give a man a fish"

for impromptu lake trips

for Crawfish Boil 2008, it'll never be better

for lunches at Toomer's

for breakfast at Big Blue

for study dates at Toomer's Coffee

for post-show Buffalo Wild Wings

for campaigns and campaign t-shirts and concourse dances and billboard painting

for days in the office that were utterly unproductive but so fun

for karaoke with the CWE cult

for successful fundraisers

for failed fundraisers

for every service event

for every meeting (well, most of them)

for listserve emails

for not telling me in advance about Taylor Swift

for standing outside the hotel and conference center until she came out

for the West Virginia game

for mornings in the President's Box

for Beat Fiji Year, Beat ATO Year, and Beat Farmhouse Year

for lemon drops

for dancing and drink specials

for jokes about making out with 15 year olds (never gets old)

for weeks in Gulf Shores, trying to find dance clubs

for art museums in DC

for catch phrase

for band parties and toga parties

for Dr. Troy's fiction class

for Dr. Burkhart's into to the psych major class

for Dr. Mattson's lab meetings

for every game day date, every road trip, every Tuesday night at 6:00

for singing the alma mater at the end of meetings

for singing the national anthem at the end of meetings

for every time I wore a blue suit and pearls with 24 of my best friends

for every time I put on sequins and poufed my hair

for Winter Song

for alto sectionals where we got nothing done and everything done at once

for party dress jokes

for Shoney's... twice.

for awkward small shows

for formals and weddings and socials

for letting me be one of the blacks and part of the black caucus

for Sundance Sundays at the Maisonette

for Twitter and #superlonghashtags

for iron bowl victories

for rolling Toomers and loving Toomers

for Toomers for Tuscaloosa

for a National Championship

for the music

for believing in the human touch

for blessing me with the Auburn family

for the perfect college experience

War Eagle.

Never Enough

Today I read an unbelievably insightful and honest speech given by a high school graduating senior. It was a brave statement, especially since he must have known that the speech would be publicized and that he (his person and his thoughts) would be subject to the ridicule, hatred, and general lack of respect that is commonplace in America today, particularly in an age where we can all hide behind user names and profile pictures. But if Justin intended on making the people who encounter his speech think long and hard about the state of the American educational system, he succeeded. After I read it I want to cry thinking about how dreadful the school systems are and how impossible it seems to fix them.

I wish there was something I could do. Well, I know that there must be something I can do and I'm praying about it and trying to figure out what that something can be. I've been drawn to law school because it seems true that working with the American legal system is the best and most effective way to evoke any kind of change. Eventually I want to work in education reform, but I have no idea how I'm going to get there.

The thing is... I'm no better than any of the other black girls out there. I won the genetic lottery and ended up with parents who understood how important it was for me to be educated and were willing to sacrifice for me. But I could have easily been born to a single parent household with a mother than simply didn't have time to invest in my education because she had to work two jobs. And if I were as "smart" as I was as a kid, but got dealt a bad hand, I might not be graduating this year. I might not be in school. I might be completely and totally lost in a way that those of us working on college degrees with goals and dreams and future plans do not understand. And it breaks my heart that another girl who was in the same kindergarten class that I was in might be floudering and stuggling in a world where life can be so so hard... just because her mom didn't read to her before she went to bed, so she couldn't read in 1st grade and wasn't put in RTC and was forever labeled and stigmitized as dumb.

Because we all know its the teachers that decide who is smart and who is not. I don't mean for people who have like crazy awesome IQ's or the handful of kids who honestly suffer from some kind of disorder that makes school difficult for them. I mean the rest of us. I'm pretty average. Possibly slightly above, but mostly average. But once a teacher choose the smart kids and the not-smart kids, that sticks with you for life. Partly because of self-fulfilling prophesies, and partly because the teachers will give you more attention, more help, and better feedback if you show more "potential." I hate when people say "potential" as though some people have it and some people don't. By definition, do we not all have potential?

Okay, I'm rambling now. I was just feeling so... touched by that speech and by my own mind and imagination that I needed to write about it. I'm really excited for God to show me what I can do to help the education situation.

With love,
Shelli