Freedom of Choice

For the morning part of the class today, the Women & Leadership course hosted a panel discussion with 4 guest speakers, including Tory, our TA. The other speakers included: Gail Cohee, Director of the Sarah Doyle Women's Center at Brown; Shane Lloyd, Assistant Director for First-Year & Sophomore Programs; and Joshua Segui, Assistant Director of Co-Curricular Activities. Both Joshua and Shane were staff from the Brown Center for Students of Color. For the panel, Dean Almandrez provided snacks and drinks.

During the first part of the panel, it reminded me of something like the ILC dinner where it started off as a free-to-roam atmosphere while we got to talk to each guest individually. Except for this occasion, there were only 4 guests and about 25 students all curious about their experiences. Dean Almandrez later called on us to take seats in a circle as we all talked about dealing with ignorance, what it means to be an ally, and self-care/sustaining your health while dealing with such prominent and demanding social issues. Each panelist had a lot to say about feminism and their personal experiences with social justice. Lastly, we were once again allowed to go about, talking to each panelist personally.

Studying with Tory.

At 11, Dean Almandrez then told us that we were free to go about the rest of our day, that for the second part of what would have been class, we should be productive and work on whatever we needed to. Tory offered her work hours during what would have been class time to help us with our Action Plans. 

Something I've had to adjust to regarding my experience at college so far is the abundant, somewhat overwhelming, amount of freedom you possess when you're thousands of miles away from your parents and you're essentially on your own in an open campus. It leaves you in charge of yourself, responsible for your own decisions. Your productivity is literally what you make it to be if you apply yourself and really focus on managing your time appropriately.

A pleasant little study area. (Picture shot by Erin)

So for lunch, Erin and I decided to do a little work outside a nearby building on a bench with shade before heading over to lunch at the V-Dub. After working some more on our Action Plans and eating, we went to Tory's office hours in the classroom and stayed there. I would say that today was a very productive day for me thanks to all that free time we were given. As an incentive to working for the full 2 hours, Gaby and I treated ourselves to some delicious froyo at FroyoWorld.

I got to my dorm at around 4:30 and took a long-needed nap. This was the first nap I'd taken since our plane had landed in Providence a little over a week ago. It was quite glorious.

Later on, some of the cohort girls went over to the V-Dub for dinner, where we happened to run into Komal! We sat down for dinner and ate for a while before we headed back to the dorms to catch up on work. Overall, today was a day where I really realized just how much freedom I have here, and that I have the power to make the best of it.