my first year at Shimer--journal entries

I just found one of my old journals from Shimer and thought it'd be fun to post some excerpts. I had to xxxx out some names/events to protect the guilty. I left my typos, etc. intact. The () are added now.

August 29, 1998
Shimer is cooler than cool. It is also wacked. The ppl. are bold, imaginative, daring and somewhat crazy. After an annoying car trip - Eyal (my brother) ultimately stopping to help some womyn change their tires...when they were in a gas station and didn't need the help...meanwhile I'm running late and we left an hour later than I was supposed to - dad taking 1/2 hour to make some coffee, me waiting for mom who said the shower was hers at 7AM and I waited 'til 7:15 to ignore hr. We were supposed to leave @8, left @9.

Ran into the guy I thought was so cute...smoking a joint w/ a group of ppl. My "mentor" offered me some alcoholic beverage...I didn't think Shimer was a party school.

Met Brandi, finally...which was awes. The luncheon was great, wonderful food (vegetarian, too!) - a good speech by David Shiner on how nobody calls a textbook "great"-and cake. Met my roommate, who I really like. Walked outside on broken glass + got lost w/ her. Attempted to unpack. Met John + Rich, neo-beatniks, and Psyche and Luke. Got a CD from John, gave them (and Luke) stones, traipsed up and down the colorfully painted hallway... listened to Mom bitch in the car all day. Am having a blast and attempting to figure out... my confusion. I don't know how I feel abt. being here yet. The drugs and alcohol threw me off. I feel uncomfortable w/ them. I do indeed like the ppl. I've met so far though.

rt on North
left on Cory
~~~~~~~~

the 30th?

This is the real thing. ppl here have children, are married, have arrest records. the plato (euthyphro) sem. class rocked...I'm still thrown off by the pot/alcohol use but... went to a picnic by the lake. later on we all swam naked in the beach. there's a guy here named XXXXX, intuition man, who is really, really, cool. XXXX, XXXXX, (censored), XXXX, XXXX...everyone is really cool. went grocery shopping, did more unpacking, had some fun.
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31st

he said...it's bad to visualize to try to change the future. he said__ God, he said so many things so full of insight. really hit close to home. well i guess it's okay that luke is sleeping in my bunk with amy beside him my comforter on their lap. my blanket

and that i feel like a stranger in my own room + someone would do me the service of going in + telling them

*snip*

September 8th
school is interesting. am learning and questioning more than i ever fathomed. it's scary that ppl. understand me and what i say to the pt. that they argue abt. it so much I just have to TOTALLY change it.

went w/ jason stahl to get a drum the other day but he didn't like it and charlie came and drove my car and almost killed us 3 times.

he was mad that i said if it was womyn in lord of the flies they would've just braided each other's hair. (he said) it was sexist + wrong of me to say that.

it was also a joke.

being + nothingness. we can confuse ourselves here. i like it, it's challenging. only a bit frustrating. i keep forgetting he has a hard time talking to people. that maybe he's as nervous as i am.

9/13
I can't believe I'm about to go to church with the Dean. That's so weird. This school is crazy. I hear he did a lot of acid and had affairs with students but that he is married now + it's all good.
~~~

Well I went + it was really great. His wife came too. We sat, said nothing for an hour except one womyn who spoke abt how we were united in the Spirit and in silence and not distracted by the outside world/noise and it was so beautiful. I couldn't get my mind to shut up but the silence really helped. Then they introduced the Sunday school kids who explained what they did that day (the oldest group talked abt. which word they'd never utter and about what it means to be gay, etc.) They listed off a lot of activist stuff they did. I just really like Quakers, they've done so much w/ gay rights, womyn suffragists, native people, conscientious objectors to war, underground railroad, etc.
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It was cool reading this because just last Friday I was teaching my 8th graders about Quakers after we read a textbook story about Harriet Tubman...all these years later!!

I will look for more interesting excerpts...