I leave tomorrow afternoon out of Boston! I’ll take three
flights – including an overnight (or red eye) flight from New York to London
and in full, travel for a little under 24 hours, arriving in Edinburgh – the
capital of Scotland – on Wednesday. I’ll be attending an orientation with other
American students traveling to universities in Scotland for three days in
Edinburgh. On Saturday, I’ll arrive at St. Andrews and have orientation there
for a little over a week and start classes on September 17th.
I’m
ready to depart at this point. The summer has been wonderful, but very long.
Four months, and while amazing, it was a lot of time to be out of school and such a
huge change from being at Saint Michael’s for two years when I was in such a
social setting all the time. I worked at Café Indigo, a vegan café/bakery in
Concord for the past four months, and while it could be tough, and was certainly
the most challenging job I’ve ever held, I learned so much about the
restaurant/café/bakery business, and loved loved loved all (actually, most) of
the customers I met and was able to interact with every day, and ate such
delicious lunches every day. This summer, major changes occurred for Café
Indigo as contracts were signed providing Whole Foods grocery stores in all of
New England, New York City, and the state of California many of the cakes,
cookies, whoopie pies, etc. California, especially, was an exciting state to
provide vegan desserts for, as the state is so vegan-friendly, and has a
multitude of vegan bakeries to choose from already. It was an exciting and very
changing summer there, for sure. I think back to several of the funniest
moments of the summer occurring with customers, co-workers, and events around
the bakery. Some of the funny aspects of the job that I look back on are how
much time I spent in giant walk-in freezers digging through boxes of whoopee
pies and cookies searching and shivering, the amount of customer questions I
answered about the taste of seitan (a wheat protein with a bread-like taste and
meat-like substitute), the thousands of cupcakes I frosted, the kind, peaceful vegans who came in, the angrier,
passionate vegan customers, the number of times I slipped on the concrete
kitchen floor after it was mopped daily, the number of times my head scarf
(protecting my hair from getting in the food) slipped off my head as I
delivered dishes to customers, and the man who would periodically knock on the
door after we had closed and turned off the lights asking for a cupcake. Many
of the customers provided me with advice/information/warnings about life,
Scotland, microwaves, vegan recipes, canola oil, bunnies, and countless more subjects.
On a
totally different note, this past January I was able to attend a conference in
Atlanta for the interfaith youth core. An emerging, Chicago-based organization
striving to increase dialogue and acceptance between all religions, I loved the
conference. While the three of us from Saint Michael's who attended quickly returned to sub-zero
Vermont temperatures very very late when we returned in the middle of January
as well as an exhausting semester, this summer I’ve thought back to
that movement and conference several times. I hope to find an organization or
movement like that at St. Andrews. As proud as I am to be Catholic/Christian, I’m
even prouder to be interested in accepting and loving every religion. Perhaps
that has shaped my view as to religion being just the same as men and women all
being equal. The interfaith youth core is
a wonderful organization, and I feel so thankful to have found it. It may not
be in full swing now, it may not have started yet, perhaps it never will, but I
do see a movement for religion equality, one that is just beginning, the tip of the
iceberg, maybe, but one in which discrimination and lack of equality between
religions is occurring, it is quickly coming to light, and I fear that just as
the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and the current gay rights
movement, a movement towards acceptance of all religions is coming. It’s
necessary, and it might not be nice, but between now and when Christians accept
Muslims, Jews accept atheists, agnostics accept Sikhs, a movement must begin.
Most world conflicts both today and dating back thousands of years emerge from disagreements between religions. This decade and this time is such a turning point. The protests and voices of
this generation which I’m happy to be a part of, are louder and challenge our
society. No matter one’s age, experience, beliefs, or affiliations, we all want
a better world. While we each have different definitions of “better,” I see
that together we are forever evolving, changing, and striving for improvement
in our lives, in the minds of others, in the lives of us all. We all want
peace, we all want famine and genocide to end, we all want our ideas and goals
met. While I didn’t plan for this to become an inspirational-like post, I think
what I feel most strongly about is speaking one’s mind. Participation in
society is crucial, no matter what ideals or hopes one has, I see voicing it as
the most important. For democracy to continue, the voices, opinions, and free
speech of all of us is needed. Involvement and participation is necessary. What
is making today’s young generation succeed in movements, changes, and protests
began when millions of young people were willing to speak their thoughts and
ask for change. I think that’s who I want to be.
As for
tonight’s reality, I’m ready for it all to begin. This coming weekend I’ll be
beginning the year at St. Andrew’s, and I look forward to the new experience so
much. The journey begins tomorrow in Boston, then New York, London, Edinburgh, St. Andrews. I’m so so packed, and prepared for the adventure to begin!
P.S. I’ve been listening to this a lot lately, one of my
favorite songs. J http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuIwRweZoec
P.P.S. Thanks for all of the lovely well-wishes. J It’s been wonderful to
hear from family, friends, and former teachers interested in all that is going
on. I was so touched earlier today when my second-grade teacher Mrs. Hamilton
sent me an e-mail asking for my flight number to track it. J
And a picture from the weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment