Check-in 4

I originally intended for my next post to be another slightly more professional or academic one, but unfortunately the post ideas that I had fell through. In the next month or so you should expect to be reading sections of, if not the entirety of essays that I am writing for my various classes, so I decided that I would use this post as an opportunity to share what classes I am taking this semester in order to prepare my audience for future posts. I am taking five classes this semester: an astronomy course, yet another mythology course, a queer readings course, a course on European modernity, and a course on golden-age Spanish drama. So far its been fun, but also very busy, since I also have two jobs and other extra-curricular commitments.

I hesitate to put anything too personal on the internet, but there was also a death in my family of someone I was quite close to as a child. Life is precious, and so I have been spending time in the company of those that I love, and doing my best to enjoy every moment I can with my friends and family while we are all together on this earth, because one never really knows what day will be their last.

Best wishes to you all,
Talia

Falling in Love...

... with books.

Ever since I learned how to read, I loved it. There was something about that turning of the page, that dark text on paper, the curves of A to the sharpness of Z, as soon as I learned how it was the only thing I wanted to do. I was that awkward person in the corner of the party who would rather read about friendships than have them. That isn't to say that I never had friends, I just tended to like my books a little bit better. My childhood was definitely one of a reading nerd.

All this is very well and good, right up until I started University. To jump topics, my very first day at Middlebury this summer my professor for Oral and Written Spanish said this about our coursework: "No es difícil, es mucho." Now I'm not sure I agree; for one thing quantity preludes difficulty, but I digress. The thing about college is that there is so much to do, every second of every day there is a new experience, or at least an essay due at midnight and late-night cookie deliveries. I spent the eve of my 19th birthday writing an essay, and when I finished at 3am I went to brush my teeth and noticed the entire hall had signed a happy birthday poster that was written in Harry Potter font using a purple Sharpie.

In my cultures class at Middlebury we spoke about "La Movida Madrileña" and my professor quoted someone (I don't remember who it was) saying that in Spain no one slept, because there was so much that they had the liberty to do once Franco's regime had ended. Brandeis isn't exactly recently-liberated Spain, but I still never sleep.

All this is to say, I am a busy individual. Reading, which got my whole life was an escape, somehow became a chore. As a Comparative Literature major with minors in creative writing and classical studies I've had to read a lot. Even my other major, linguistics, for all that it is a science has had a hefty amount of reading. Once I finish that Literature essay at 3 am the only thing I want to do is brush my teeth and sleep, not pick up another book.

Feeling this way hasn't been comfortable to me, and for all that I enjoy college in that small way I haven't been happy in the thing that I love.

Thankfully, my love in reading has been rekindled once more, but it's not with Harry Potter this time, it's with Isabel Allende. It was "Eva Luna" (in the original Spanish of course; I wasn't allowed English this summer) that reminded me that reading is fun and I'm happy to have had my experience at Middlebury, because I've fallen in love with reading again, and that's wonderful.

On Love and Hope

I love a lot of things. I love my parents, I love my girlfriend, I love my dogs. I love my friends, my siblings, my cousins, my grandparents and my aunts and uncles. I love Harry Potter and tea and funky hats. I love language and literature and learning. I love opportunities, making new friends, discovering exciting ideas and places. What I don't love, is I don't love being sad. I don't love being angry. Unfortunately, in this world, a lot makes me sad, and a lot makes me angry.

But many things also give me hope. And in order to let that hope grow the most important thing that I can do, that anyone can do is listen to the people that they love and respect. To not ignore the words of someone that we don't agree with just because we don't agree with them. To accept that they are worth something. Don't ignore what you love just because there is something standing in your way. Be kind. And acknowledge and perceive how what you love defines you, and how you define the people who love you.

What else is there to do?

So many people are trying to do good in this world, a world that seems at times to have lost so, so much. But I think there is more that we have to gain too. Here are a few sources I've found of ways to donate or get involved, in a variety of areas that are affected right now, and if anyone has any further suggestions please comment or reblog.

Here is an article I found  about ways to help after Charlottesville, including verified gofundme campaigns: http://time.com/money/4899250/charlottesville-virginia-victims-help/
And here is an article I found about ways to help after the Barcelona attack: http://elitedaily.com/news/politics/everything-can-help-barcelona-van-attack-victims-right-now/2047875/

There have been many other injustices going around lately, but those seem to be two of the biggest right now. I also have a personal list of some more general ways to help causes you care about:

• Install tab for a cause as a browser extension. You collect a 'heart' for every tab you open, and you can later donate hearts as monetary donations to a variety of charaties. This works for both Chrome and Firefox, which are what I primarily use. I'm not sure about other browsers: http://tab.gladly.io/
• If you use Amazon, signing in and going to smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com enables Amazon Smile, which donates 0.5% of the price of eligible Amazon Smile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice, and has all of the same amazon products. My Amazon smile, for instance, donates to the Harry Potter Alliance.
• Donate blood (if eligible*). Brandeis has blood drives 3 times a year, and if you go to the red cross website you can find places near you. http://www.redcross.org/give-blood
• Every December the vlogbrothers (John and Hank Green) host a YouTube event where people make YouTube videos in support of their favored charities. The basic idea is that the charities represented in the videos with the most views and votes get a share of the money that is raised on a related Indiegogo campaign. In P4A 2016 they raised $862,544 from indiegogo donations, $350,000 from John & Hank & other matching donors (1st half) $400,000 from the Save the Children donor, $400,000 from the Partners in Health donor, $110,929 from the FTDWS (Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck) bank account, $26,050 from community matching donors (2nd half), for a grand total of $2,149,523.You can find out more about the Project for Awesome here: http://www.projectforawesome.com/about

Again, if there is anything you think is important and that I should have added on please let me know in a comment or reblog and I'll do my best to update this post as needed.

The weapon we have is love,

Talia



*There are some problematic issues over who is eligible to donate blood, but the official red cross eligibility data is here: http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood/eligibility-requirements/eligibility-criteria-topic