Terra Incognita

for fiscus
During one of our Vietnam lectures in History of the Sixties, B0b C0llins revealed to us his experience protesting the war. In 1968, Collins was a student at Columbia Universirty, where some of the country's biggest campus demonstrations were held. Our professor, a working class Irish Catholic, was smitten with one Ona Stonkis, a sophisticated Jew from NYC. She had "sophistication beyond what I had ever seen." Here are Collins' own words:

I would sit near her table on campus. I'd spread The New York Times out in front of me and every once in a while exclaim vehemently, "Those bastards!" Part of my anti-war activity was just to get close to Ona. I went to a big protest in DC with a big group of students. We knew there was a good chance that they were going to tear gas the protesters and Ona had slathered her body with Vaseline to avoid the affects of the tear gas. It was before the protest and I was holding hands with her in a big circle; we were singing. Everyone started to move toward the protest and her hand just slipped away. She went off to riot and I went home to sleep. That was the last time I saw her.

you've gotta be kidding me
Three weeks until graduation. I've been pretty emotional lately, thinking about leaving this campus and all the people here. Just ask Kate who has seen me tear up just about every time we have a chat. I'd like to pack Columbia up in a bag and take it with me, available when I want a bit of college life but able to tuck away when it's time to move on. I'm ready for something new, but I want to experience that something new with the people who have become so important to me in the past four years. In some ways I feel like I have exhausted this town. And yet, it seems that there is still so much I have yet to do to make my college experience complete. I still have never been to the Diner. I haven't fulfilled my duty as a sorority girl to spend a sunny afternoon out at the winery. And what degree from Mizzou is complete without a make-out session on the Columns, right? And then there's everything I want to experience one more time before leaving: Brock's Green Pepper Rings from Murray's, a Ragtag film, a Shake(y)'s concrete... I'll have to come back in a few months, of course, for a burger and beer at the 'Berg.

So, graduation is coming. Don't be alarmed if you see tears in my eyes.