Kate Sheridan's blog

Trying to conceive of the geometry of a fourth dimension involves disregarding everything you thought you “knew” about reality, existence, and your ability to perceive the world around you. Typically when one hears about the fourth dimension, the mind goes directly to time, but in reality it doesn’t matter whether you call time the fourth dimension or the fortieth dimension. Each dimension must be perpendicular to all of the other dimensions, and it doesn’t matter what order you examine them in. In terms of this paper, the fourth dimension refers to a fourth spatial dimension.

            The Bryn Mawr community proudly and vocally offers an open and accepting space for all walks of gender and sexuality, offering its students an opportunity for personal exploration and growth, both as participants in and/or supporters of the queer community.  Simply living on this campus is an experiment in the complexity of gender and sexual identities, and the variation from individual to individual.  Even general terms defined today, such as lesbian, gay, bi, or heterosexual are not inclusive enough to adequately “label” all forms of sexual orientation (not surprisingly many people would prefer not to be labeled), and gender identities serve as an even greater example of complexity.  One identity in particular, that of transgendered individuals, specifically transsexuals, poses a particularly intricate mix of gender and sex “norms,” prompting questions about both the mental and physical aspects of the self in creating identity.

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to find you are not in bed at all, but have a bag full of clothes on your shoulder, car keys at the ready, and your hand on the doorknob to your room. You cannot remember getting out of bed, getting dressed, or packing your bags, but the car keys in your hand are very real, and all you can do is count your lucky stars you woke up before you had a chance to use them. Sound unsettling? This is just one of countless stories of sleepwalking experienced by a friend of mine, and not only is her condition unsettling, but it causes a great disturbance to her sleep schedule. As a college student and busy individual, I often take sleep for granted, but for someone with a sleep disorder such as sleepwalking, a full-night’s rest can seem like a gift from the gods.