A letter to myself

Dear Margie,

Remember when you were a first semester first year (just like how they say it in Canada and in Harry Potter) at Grinnell and you lived on Loose Second with Kathleen in the corner room next to the fire escape? Well, that's where you lived. And that’s who you lived with. You liked living there a lot because most everyone was older and you didn’t have to deal with first year bullshit. Loose also hosted good parties and everyone on the floor thought you and Ryan should get married because you spent so much time together even though it could never happen in real life. Other people who lived on your floor who were cool are Christena, Nilesh, Adam, Britt, Meredith, Claire, Anna, Katy, Les, and Molly.

At this point, you have been in Iowa for four months. The semester is over and you’re on the plane on the flight home for Winter Break. Your favorite foods in the JRo (Joe Rosenfield '25 Student Center) are tater bucks with ranch dressing, fruit of the forest pie, pita pockets with hummus and cucumber and red onion from the vegan station, and, on occasion, the Fettuccini Alfredo from the pasta bar.

You are the Assistant Design Editor as well as a Sports Writer on staff at the Scarlet & Black and you occupy your time by decorating your dorm room, monitoring the Stonewall Resource Center’s Library, throwing wonderful bashes, bowling on an all men’s league of townies, and illin’ it with Ryan, Christena, Meredith, Kathleen, Claire, Nilesh, Adriane, Adam, Katy, and Anna. You also do homework. The classes you took were Intermediate Spanish, which you hated with a burning passion. As soon as you completed the oral final you vowed never to speak the language again unless of course you found yourself in a hostage situation and you were the only one able to communicate with the criminals. You’re Gender and Women’s Studies class was profess-ed by Rita Alfonso, a militant feminist with steel-toed boots and chin hair. She seemed to like your papers (except probably your final one which was a feminist critique of tampons.) First year tutorial with Sarah P. was fine. Kelsey, Ryan, Greg, Thomas, Jacob, Mary, Leah, Caitlin, and Liza were in your tutorial. You particularly liked sociology because it gave you a chance to make other people uncomfortable i.e. encouraging the reclaiming of the word "cunt." Plus, you got to sit next to Ryan and complain about all the privileged kids from the suburbs of Chicago who were very out of touch with reality.

Several highlights include but are not limited to: talking on the cell phone to friends and family in the nast co-ed bathtubs, the ReNew Orleans house gutting trip you took over fall break with Evan, Rachel, Adam, Anna, Fai, Jessica, Erin, Neo, and Ryan, Halloween (you were a truck driver and Ryan was your dead male hooker- you also went to Daniel Carroll’s Pumpkin Farm even though he hates gay people,) the word “Holla” and the “Holla, Happy to Be Alive Hour Party” which you hosted on Loose Deuce with Ryan, Sleepovers in the pit with Ryan, the Pub, Thanksgiving weekend, and being done with finals. You really like Grinnell and even though you were kind of sad about being in Iowa at the beginning, you really think it’s going to work out fine, as long as Ryan doesn’t transfer.

In the Des Moines airport today you found Fai wandering around the gift shop looking really dazed and confused and you sat next to Amanda Gay who was illin' it at the Delta Connection gate on her way to Russia. She shared the cookies with you that her housemate, Chris made for her. Ryan texted you several times throughout the morning because he took the train home to Colorado from Ottumwa; you saw him off after you shared nachos and “strawritas” from “Fiesta Cantina.” You noticed that no one working at “Fiesta Cantina” was Latino/a. This bothered you a little.

When you get off the plane in Bellingham, your mom will probably be crying because she’s so happy you’re home and you’ll give both of your parents a big hug because you haven’t seen them for four months. Then, you’ll all go out to lunch and then cut down a Christmas tree and then eat Chinese in celebration of shortauntiej's graduation from WWU . YAY. You’re going home. Holla!