Humanizing Experience

It’s funny how life provides us with all the leisure and comfort we believe we deserve. With the levels of technology we have today, “Emergency Exits” are simply the click of a button away. Looking back, our forefathers could only dream of the things we now have at our easy disposal – the Wright brothers probably never dreamt of the Concorde or the 747 nor did  Alexander Bell ever fathom fiber optics or the internet. But where does all this leave us? Where does it leave me? I’m writing this blog with my Course Schedule booklet laying open in front of me. Its times like these that I wonder where I’m going and why I want to go there. So I decided to visit the Tufts Art Gallery where they are currently displaying the Questions Without Answers: A Photographic Prism, 1985 – 2010 photo exhibit (http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gallery/shows/questionswithoutanswers.html). I have been avoiding going to the exhibit for the last three months and now with only one week remaining, I finally gathered up the courage and for moral support and company, I invited my supervisor, Ellen Mounteer to come with me.

From the moment I walked in, I felt my stomach start to churn. For many people, this exhibit may be a discomforting and grotesque exhibit of all that is wrong with the world, but this wasn’t why my stomach was doing back flips. Something about the pictures just spoke to my conscience and I could not shake the voice. As we walked around, we were first greeted by the less “discomforting” pictures – the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, an army parade in North Korea and soldiers on duty in Iraq. These seemed to me, like an introduction, an ushering in of the brutal reality that followed. Then the pictures began to get more intense… the family returning to their destroyed home in Bosnia, the soldier who lays down his gun as he weeps before the mass grave where his family lies in Chechnya and the woman reaching out for help from her makeshift bed on a slab of stone in Haiti.

All throughout, my stomach never settled, and I found myself drifting in and out of the gallery, transcending the boundaries of  time and space… I saw myself: back in my room, sitting over my course schedule booklet and thinking to myself (in the words of Switchfoot) “the tension is here… between who you are and who you should be… between how it is and how it should be.”

Then my mind whirls and I find myself in the picture I’m looking at: a seemingly normal family sitting for a portrait, only to notice the rifle that hangs on the wall and the caption that mentions how the pictured father sits next to his 13-year-old wife who he received as payment after winning a card game against the girls’ father. I see myself standing in the room, the families faces telling different stories, struggles, hopes and shuttered dreams: the father – proud as an ox, protecting his family, his older wife, playing cheerfully with her child, trying her best to shield him away from all the trouble that lay beyond the walls and the younger wife, sitting expressionless beside her new husband – her silence tormenting me with questions: “What is joy? What is love?”

Then I am swept away over to a scene in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a child soldier, wearing a crown of reeds on his little head and a wide smile evident on his face as he points a gun at the photographer – suddenly I am the photographer, looking into the eyes of this child, who is oblivious to what he is doing or what he stands for.

Next comes the pictures from Rwanda: what at first glance looks like a stockpile of wood, I soon discover is a pile of bloodstained machete’s, next to the photos of their victims – is this the same Africa I come from? Is this all that it has to show the rest of the world?

My trance comes to an end with the picture of the girl in Darfur, motionless and silent, with her eyes closed to the world as she stands in the middle of the desert; her tattered clothes barely hanging onto her frail body What does life have to offer her? What does tomorrow hold that she should smile about?

As I walk out of the gallery, my mind is at a lands-end, my stomach hasn’t settled and my hands are sweating as my heart races within me… I walked in wondering how pictures could ask questions but then I guess there is truth to the statement “A picture is worth a thousand words”. But are there no answers to these questions the exhibit presents? Sadly, I don’t know…

But what I do know is this. To quote Switchfoot once more “Yesterday is a promise that you’ve broken… don’t close your eyes… this is your life and today is all you’ve got…all you’ll ever have”. I can’t change the world that was and that is, but I can make a difference in the world to come. I can’t wipe away all the tears, mend every heart, end every war or quench every strand of hatred… but I’m not going to close my eyes to it. For me this was a humanizing experience, an encounter with the reality of this world – there is more to life… more than just me. I have a responsibility to this world, we all do. Thinking of this makes me realize that despite all the joy I receive from watching the rain falling down on the green lawn of the Quad or the laughter that rises within me when I watch squirrels running around; that in between all the beauty and all the pain that this world offers, there I will find my place.

 And so as I set out to pick my courses, and decide on where my life should go, I am grateful for this moment when I see that there is more to life than just me. Thank you Tufts!

My Tufts Experience!

These last two weeks have probably been the craziest I have ever had since coming to college. I never knew twenty-four hours could be so short and that so much could be accomplished within that time frame. My highlight for this week definitely has to be the Take Your Professor to Lunch program! For one week, Tufts gives students the chance to take their “favorite or soon-to-be-favorite” professor to lunch and they will pay the bill! This surely colored my week which was otherwise colored with chasing after assignments and an interesting encounter with a mid-term in my Engineering Science class. This is how it went…

I first thought it was a crazy idea when I got the email from Student Services – who takes their professor to lunch anyway? What do you talk about? And so for a while the email was buried somewhere in the depths of my ever-enlarging inbox. But a few days later the thought came back to me and I decided to just be crazy and try it. Like something that grabs you and never let’s go, I not only asked one of my professors to lunch – I asked three – and they all agreed! Ahhh!  And as you may expect, I later sat in my room wondering what I was going to talk about with theses three fine minds.

Tuesday afternoon arrived (faster than usual) and there I was walking down to Dewick with my English professor, Prof. Lynn Stevens, feeling both excited and uncertain of how we were going to spend the next hour. Asking her about my grades in class is one thing, talking to her outside is a whole different ball game; but its amazing how the little words “Hi, hows your day been?” can demolish barriers. Beginning with those few words, I then found myself spending three hours chatting about everything besides school: from discussing President Obama’s “Dreams from My Father”,George Bush and  Zimbabwean history to debating about religion, guilt and principles. It was a lovely and unexpected turn of events which left me feeling very pleased with myself.

With the first lunch going so well, I wasn’t sure whether I should hope for the Wednesday lunch would work out so well. My roommate, Daniel and I were meeting our Engineering Science professor, Prof. Lee Minardi, the day before we were set to write his mid-term exam. But again I was surprised by him. The conversation started with where we’re from and before I knew it, we were exchanging stories about bike-riding and places to visit in Boston. We also took a trip around the world (well, at least just in words) talking about the history of computers, Pixar, “how to succeed in a job interview” and his adventures around the world before he settled down to become a professor. And again the hours just passed by without my notice.

My last adventure this week was on Friday when I was scheduled to go for lunch with my Chemistry professor, Dr. Sergiy Kryatov. Surprisingly, I have his class was the first one I attended as a Jumbo and I have been in his class three times a week for what is soon going to be my whole freshman year – and all I have ever said to him was “I don’t understand this-or-that concept” and then he goes to great lengths explaining it to me; then I walk out of class – I never even introduced myself –  I even asked him to go to lunch and forgot to mention my name. I was almost sure this was going to be a very funny encounter. When I got to his office, I felt really awkward introducing myself to someone I’ve known for almost a year! With that out-of-the-way, Dr. Kyratov, Shawyoun (my friend and classmate) and I headed out to Dewick. From listening to him lecture for two semesters to now chatting about politics and economics – this all changed my view of him. We delved into the history of science, how he came to be a chemistry professor (there’s a good story behind that and all the other Chemistry stories he knows – I never knew chemistry started of as a leisure activity and how Antoine Lavoisier, the “father of chemistry” was beheaded for being “too rich”!) We contemplated the future over a cup of coffee and ended with a discussion about what he studied for his PhD. thesis. All in all –  it was a “good afternoon”!

It’s amazing how easily we (or at least I) can view our professors as people from Mars. Sitting down with them made me realize that they are just as human as I am, with hopes and dreams, a past and stories about that past, living in the same world and even knowing what it’s like to be a student. It was quite a humanizing effect and I feel a lot more comfortable asking questions now that I see that we are all human! Yey!

To end this week, I was asked to write about what the Tufts experience means to me and this was my response:

Exhilarating, worthwhile and inspirational. These are the first words that come to my mind when I look back on my first year at Tufts. I have had my eyes opened to new ideas and areas of study; my beliefs challenged in ways that have taught me to grow and stand up for something and my endurance has been tried in ways that refined my personality.  The Tufts experience to me means a new way of life, a new way of thinking, shaped by all the different nationalities, beliefs and ideals that are represented in the student body. It is a broadening and widening of one’s knowledge, inter-twined with the expansion of one’s dreams as one’s eyes are opened to a world of possibilities. It is the nurturing of life-long friendships made with students, staff and faculty and a goldmine of wisdom and experience through all the challenges that life as a Jumbo present before one. Lastly, it is a celebration of diversity and tradition through all the events that are hosted and presented on Walnut Hill. That is my Tufts experience!

Rain! Sweet rain!

Yey! So its raining outside and suddenly I’m happy! The weather forecast predicts that the WHOLE day is going to be wet – terrific! I simply love the rain! I wish it was actually a thunder storm! Oh, how I miss those African thunderstorms. People usually find my love for rain quite surprising but I come from a town which spends almost 90% of the year under the burning sun and so on those rare occasions when we get rain – you just gotta love it!

My resolution to stop procrastinating on weekends hasn’t really paid off. On Saturday I was JUST about to sit down and try some reading (which is a bit overdue ) but then – a friend of mine knocks on the door and asks me if I want to go skating. Without a second thought, I said yes and soon found myself milling around with a crowd of people waiting for the Joey to get into Davis. A little voice in my head kept trying to change my mind, but my fate was sealed once I jumped on the T. Then I found myself amidst a crowd of random people from my hall who I did not know – at all! Thus, began the nitty-gritty of trying to join the conversation and surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard! We arrived at the Frog Pond and from the moment I put the skates on, I knew there was a good reason why God didn’t give ice and snow to Africa!  First time on ice and oh my – I never knew that losing control of my own legs could be so easy! So there I was floating around with no control whatsoever, while everyone sped past me. My first thought was to frown but I found myself smiling and laughing at myself. And off course, like a right of passage, I had to “bite the dust”  a few times. I’m sure I gave the onlookers quite a good laugh with my acrobatics.

Thankfully the group of people I was with were really kind people and they helped me learn a few things about staying on my feet. By the time we left, I could at least float around in a straight line but I still have a lot to learn. Skating is an art and to those who can do it – you have my respect.

Afterwards we went to watch Leo DiCaprio’s movie “Shutter Island” in Alewife. I walked out of the cinema feeling a bit like I had been cheated out of my money by a tantalizing trailer but now that I look back at it… that is quite an impressive movie! Thank you to Hashem, Justin, Mariah, Ariel, Rob and everyone else from the Hill Hall fourth floor for a wonderful evening!

Fun weekend, made new friends… homework? Well… Oh Tufts!

And now life returns to work and the sweet rain…

Mid-Terms!

So I was finally starting to get the hang of my homework and all the nitty-gritty of college only to wake up one morning and realize that I’m already a third of the way into the semester and the first round of “mid-terms” is about to land in my new-found land of bliss! (Why they are called “mid-terms” yet they come in 2 or 3 times a semester is still a puzzle to me.)

 And I learned my good lesson these last two weeks and now I can safely say I know why those more learned than I say that PROCRASTINATION DOES NOT PAY! It is so true! I spent these last two weeks playing catchup with my homework because I took someone’s well-intentioned advice to “take it easy” as a blank check to sleep the weekend away. Thankfully, I was quickly zapped back to earth within the first few hours of Monday morning when I figured how much work I had neglected. Surprisingly, at the end of the day, I kinda enjoyed playing catchup – had me staying up through most of the night hours but I thought that was great! (Or maybe I just liked the idea of having a million things to do in a few hours!) But either way, I won’t be sleeping through ALL of my weekends from now on (maybe just a little bit of them – like just all of Saturday

So this Sunday is Valentines Day. What will I be up to all day? No prizes for guessing this one!!  HOMEWORK!!!!

Thankfully, there are nice people in this world who are kind enough to remember that not everyone has a “Valentine” and got me some really nice sweets to enjoy while I bury myself in Mastering Chem!!

At last!

So it’s taken me this long to finally write my first blog, but hurray! It’s finally here. What finally shoved me off my couch of comfort? I was just thinking about the people I have met at Tufts in the last few months and I realize that I love meeting people even though I’m scared to death about it. Working at the Admissions office has placed in direct contact with people and in a roundabout way, it is what is helping me define who I am, not just at Tufts but also as a human being. I now have to chat with people who happen to come in when I’m in the lobby and also to the occasional visitors who need directions getting somewhere.

So this is me: I’m from a small town in Zimbabwe, near the southern tip of the African continent and I came to Tufts with the idea that I want to graduate with a degree in Chemical engineering. Only thing is, once I started working at the Admissions office, people would ask me what I like most about Tufts. After applying here, I somehow never imagined anyone would ever ask me such a question. (This makes sense now as there must be a reason why I travelled 9,000 miles to come here!) So after fumbling through a reply and blushing on a number of occasions, it got me thinking about what I love most about Tufts.

The answers to that question began to show and the first thing I have discovered so far is: the classes! Maybe that’s too vague so let me be precise – my Lessons From Solitude class! (The name also had me raising an eyebrow.) So it’s this class where we explore the writings of the some great authors who produced their best works during their years of aloneness, and sometimes rejection and sorrow. I know that doesn’t sound too inspiring but being an engineering student and getting the chance to read the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Merton and Dietrich Bonhoeffer is to me – outstanding! Maybe my whole attraction to the class is my introverted nature which seems to find expression in these writers – but still it’s an awesome class! I never thought there could such a “class” and I’m very impressed! (And it provides an escape from my usual load of math and chem!) Besides reading all these works, we also get our chance at writing what may someday (maybe centuries from now) be studied by othersJ.

So that is my short introduction into the first discovery of what I love about Tufts. I’m discovering a whole lot more and I can’t wait to meet more visiting students and their parents!