On the walk to my spot, trees had fallen against each other, creating crevices for animals to crawl through, nest in, and change to fit their needs. A couple of birds built a nest that rested perfectly balanced on top of the cluster of trees. The leaves whistled in the chilling wind. New vines crawled up old trees, enveloping layers of history, growth, and unrecognized or misunderstood pieces of the trees, the leaves, and the branches' stories. I could not help but think about this notion of belonging, though I know it is a western, white, not ecological word. What should live in this open, patched forest? Who decides who should be able to enter?

I remember Professor Cohen mentioning at some point how we will be looking into New Jersey and its education system which made me think about the cohort of students I had worked with two summers ago and their high school experience at Trenton Central High School. TCHS is one of the largest high schools located in the state's capital which could be assumed to be well kept and be able to meet students' needs since it is so close to the state's Education Department Building and other resources that are known to provide for the rest of the state. However, as you will see in the couple of articles listed below, this has never been the case for Trenton's Public School System.

This is a reposting of a poem I wrote and posted to serendip in 2013, the semester we began the Book Club. It is about the way I experience being inside, and how my memories shape my understanding of my surroundings. I chose to upload it again because the original posting was private and wanted to be able to publically link this to another posting.

“Stay on the Wall”

Getting inside is always waiting

Waiting for approval, waiting for the gate to lift,

Driving in and watching the thin line fall mechanically back into its horizontal position behind us

We are surrounded by barbed wire and fencing.

We park and out of habit,

My major is called "Educational Identities and Empowering Pedagogy."

My quick way of explaining it is: "It's kind of a merging of Education and Identity Studies." My longer way of explaining it is: "I'm interested in the way student identities can best be supported in classroom spaces. How do we make schools inclusive communities? How do we support a broad range of backgrounds?"

People ask me: "So you're going to be a teacher?"

At first my answer was no. But I've started to really love the teaching roles I've taken on, so my answer now is, "Yes, but not yet." I need to take some time away from being directly in the classroom. Maybe I need to learn more about myself or about the world around me – I'm not sure. 

After the incomprehensible shootings of three young Muslim people at UNC Chapel Hill, the Muslim Students Association organized a vigil last night. It was absolutely beautifully put together, with time to talk about the events, time to mourn and stay silent, time to pray, and time to share feelings. It was understandably difficult for anyone to feel ready to say anything about the events and their impact on the community, but the mic was then passed around the circle. Those who spoke were mostly Muslim students, those who passed the mic were mostly not. This creation of silence and voices was really important, I think, to maintaining a feeling of support and solidarity and alliance wth those who were struck most closely by the events.

This week, when I was talking to my friends, we were talking about how our feelings have changed about Bryn Mawr as we became sophomores . Do they feel belonging to the Bryn Mawr culture. I asked them, " Do you feel that you belong to Bryn Mawr?". One of them, X replied, " I think belonging is a very big and serious word for me. I haven't found any place where I belong to except my home because there are no people who love and care me like my parents do. I like this place, where I have some happy memories with friends that I want to hold on to. There are things in this culure that I don't agree with , so I'm not completely part of this community and accept everything about this culture.

During some aimless internet wandering, I stumbled across this blog of aerial photos called Daily Overview. I've seen works/collections similar to this, but some of the ones that this site selected are particularly striking (and I rather like how they phrased their mission). I know that I got sucked in for a while, so I thought that I might share the site here if others are interested. 

"Only four states (New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont) allow inmates to vote. In fourteen states, a felony conviction equals lifetime disenfranchisement" (287).

       The bluing of plants, people, their histories are intertwined with conflicts, multiple perspectives, and converging cultures. According to Jamaica Kincaid, history is erased, confused and embellished: “Americans are impatient with memory, which is one of the things order thrives on” (Kincaid  5). The story of plants is the story of colonization, destruction, slavery, and expansion. It is a rich, tinted, colorful story that must me examined by delving into its many shades. It is a bluing of ideas, a convergence the different uses of plants, and different cultures’ relationship to the environment. This a story of confusion, of the indigo plant, what seems to fade away. The indigo plant is a sturdy and long-lasting plant that dates back to ancient India, Persia, Egypt, and Peru.