As it is a weekend and I’ve found myself indoors (oh, calamity), I’m going to go ahead and do my reflection for the week. And that means I get to shamelessly pimp my first club event:
Totalitarian Islam and the Threat to Free Speech
That’s our official event description and hopefully you will see posters around campus soon. I hope everyone will attend, it’s fascinating stuff. And if that’s not good enough, go out of UC World Politics solidarity and I promise I’ll attend your deep sea basket weaving colloquium. :)
Even though a lot of you think I’m crazy in one way or another, I’m really excited about this event. As much as people complain about AU, things like this really reaffirmed my decision in coming to this school. Since I was about six years old it was expected that I’d go to either the UW or WSU like my dad. Maybe I’d get adventurous and end up at Evergreen State. But private, east coast is just not how my family rolls. Or anyone else I know, at that (44% of our graduating seniors went to college). Nobody really took my applying to AU or Georgetown seriously, including myself. If I got in I couldn’t even afford it anyways. But all I had to lose was an hour and $70 (damn you Georgetown). I will never forget opening my scholarship statement: running around the kitchen screaming, crying, going to work and calling everyone in my phonebook. It seems like so many people here dislike AU, or had it as a safety school. Granted, I didn’t get into Georgetown but I wouldn’t want it any other way. The competition and intensity of an “elite” school like that would make it so much harder to find a foothold. And the size and campus interest level of UW is discouraging to say the least. What I love about AU is how easy it is for a virtual nobody to get involved in genuinely meaningful activities.
Here I am, a freshman from halfway across the country, armed with determination and a copy of Atlas Shrugged (and any other book of hers- I’ll lend you one haha), I shoot the Ayn Rand Institute an e-mail, throw out a Facebook invite and suddenly I have a close-knit unit of 6 or 7 really amazing people helping to put together a panel with some of the most controversial international figures of the past couple years. I couldn’t be happier.
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5 comments:
ugh. I totally know what you mean about people hatin on AU. I really don't like it when I feel like I have to explain to people that I'm here because I want to be, not because it was my only choice or the best financial aid. I am involved in so many things here that I absolutely love. The only thing I dislike here is that I'm involved in so many things that I don't have time to sleep! But it's only because I genuinely love this place and don't want to miss a second of it!
...OH snap though, your little panel has gotten everyone in AU's Muslim communities in an uproar!
What are you going to do when they completely try to ruin your little shindig? With QUESTIONS of probing and hypocrisy? Dang.
And AU is amazing. That's what the A stands for. Amazing. The U stands for Understand. In a threatening context: Amazing, Understand?
I have to agree with you and give AU some lovin. There are so many possibilities for invovlement on campus and everything and everyone is open, you can just wander in and check it out. I think it is really amazing what you have done pulling this panel together.
okay, i admitt AU wasn't my first choice when I applied but after I got in and reseached the school I realized how many opportunities I would have here. I came here to learn and althought I don't know much about the panel your putting together I am excited to go TO LEARN--isn't that the point of college?
great job organizing the panel!
Jasmine, I love that you have gone all out and started a group that you believe in, even though it won't be the most popular on campus. lol I will definetly be at your event thursday! I'm really excited to go. And I know what you mean about wanting to go to AU because this was the only school I didn't get a scholarship to, but I still decided to go. I also agree that it is really easy to get involved here. I've done a lot more campaigning already than I thought I'd be able to do.
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