If you want to read about my recent thoughts on immigration, election and the economy, check out the previous entry. This one is more about my time home, which I haven't had time to process in writing yet.
I had a blast at home in MD during Thanksgiving. I got to spend good time with family and lots of friends. Our family gave thanks that we get along for the most part, which I'm realizing is a true blessing as I get older and see how more and more people are messed up because of dysfunctional families. I owe a lot of my happiness to my family for being supportive and cool with me. Grandma ain't doin so hot, but she was happy to be with us and didn't say anything crazy or ask my mom again if she was pregnant. I'm not sure it's Alzheimers, it's like she's in a half-asleep reality, talking to us while she's dreaming or thinking about something else. Everyone else was good though.
3 nights at home I hung out with friends. 2 of those nights we spent time in a TV-less room at my house, and one night at a friend's apartment with the TV on. Absence of TV made a big difference in the level of communication we engaged in. At my house we had super intense conversations about how if you've ever been put under for surgery you don't remember anything, and how death might be kind of like that (yes I am sober while writing this and yes I think about death quite a bit. I don't fear death but I am fascinated and very curious, but not curious enough to try to speed up the life process). We talked about different types of conversation. For instance, there's small talk, talk with probing questions, joking around talk, recapping things that have already happened talk, talk where one person is sharing knowledge with the other, talk about future, etc. Usually we just talk without thinking about what kind of talk we're talking. Talkety talky talk. Some words become funny if you say them a lot. We talked about how humanity still needs work, but how we've come a long since days when torture was more common, and people did messed up stuff to other people a lot more than it's happening today. I still find it weird that mistreating fellow humans is a strong instinct that remains within many people. But again, it seems like we're on the right path in reversing those instincts. That's the kind of stuff I love talking about.
In front of the TV we talked about football and Wii (the real-life video game thing which I have mixed feelings about because it does cause people to exercise which is good, but there are other ways of doing real exercise).
On a totally different note, a few hours ago I met with a group of CU students who are working on the SWAP program, which is Intercambio on campus at CU where CU students are teaching English to the immigrant workers. It's a very cool program and they've set up 100 classes already. I'm their adviser for a project they're working on to make that program sustainable on campus, and I love working with them. They have great energy and a positive change-the-world attitude, which most people call naive but I call smart. You gotta think big to achieve big, and I want to encourage them to think big. It's working for me so far. I also think about how my volunteer experiences at the Univ of Michigan at the prisons and mental health facility really shaped who I am today, and how this experience is maybe shaping them a little too. I feel a duty to provide University students with life-changing opportunities like teaching and connecting with people from different cultures, because people created similar opportunities for me.
I gotta get back to working on the immigrant guide now. It's so close to being done and I'm getting more excited about the potential for it to be used by millions of people. This excitement is alos adding a little pressure and stress, which I think is good sometimes. Thanks for reading :)
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