I really derped my way through undergrad. I continue to be routinely dumbfounded I finished as successfully as I did. I found my people, worked a few jobs, went to parties at every opportunity. I still didn’t know why I was there, but I was having lots of fun being a college kid. It was a lot different than anything I had ever known.
I didn’t know what I was searching for, but I was definitely searching. Sociology. Anthropology. Philosophy. Law. I was learning so much about people and how we construct meaning. I learned about society and how we take care of each other, and all the ways we do not. The more I learned the more the systems that control our world seemed…underwhelming?
Ask anyone who knew me during this time, I was all about the USA. I frequently wore a pair of acid washed, American flag booty shorts. I was the go-to person to provide attire for a USA themed party, and NEVER shied away from a classic USA chant.
Then Trump was elected.
It was the first election I was eligible to vote. I was so excited I would be able to vote for a woman, sure she would be the next President of the United States. I was devastated watching the results. I struggled to understand why this happened.
I had been told my whole life that my country was the best.
How could this be happening?
But life continues, no matter how much you would want it to pause. I was entering my junior year and running out of time to declare a major. Desperate to make sense of the world around me, my roommate and I sat down and cranked out an academic plan…
Political Science: to teach me how the government really works and how power plays a role in political decision making.
American Studies: to teach me to think critically about power and how to recognize propaganda when I see it.
History: to give me context for the events playing out today that I did not understand.
I went back to school in the Fall of 2020, once again struggling to understand a world that was unfamiliar to me. As COVID ripped through the world, I sat at home, alone with my cats, getting a Masters degree to feel productive.
I have changed a lot from the American flag-clad undergrad I used to be. I won’t lie to you and tell you that studying what I did helped me understand why such terrible things keep happening; but I have learned a lot. I hope to share some of that knowledge with you in this blog.
With love,
Katherine