Having Sold My Soul to Sociology (30 DPC: Day 18)

Day 18: A Photograph of a Meal I Ate Today

   Tonight for dinner Mount Holyoke was hosting a gracious dinner* across campus, so the appetizing collection of food above is a bit of an anomaly. But I've forgotten to bring my camera to a meal since thinking of this prompt, so this is the meal that's getting recorded. It comprised of: a delicious hot dog (yes, I'm aware they are revolting), two servings of broccoli (in the back and my favorite vegetable), a kabab of veggies and I think steak, a baked potato with cheese and chives, and some kind of corn cake thing. And of course, a glass of water to drink with a cup of tea (which I forgot to snap a picture of):

  The BEST part of my meal, though, was the bowl of mozzarella cheese balls:

  I love cheese. Cheese, of any kind, if my favorite food. I would marry cheese. Have I mentioned how much I love cheese?

   Today’s prompt is relevant because I am in the process of eating my words. The words that professed I would never major in anything remotely like my parents, the words saying I was going to double major in Art History and Gender Studies.

   Because today I officially declared my major. Yesterday my friend Jenn, from my nerdfighting collab channel AllMadeofAwesome, asked in the comments if I came into college knowing I was going to major in Sociology. The simple answer is no, but as I am learning here at my lovely liberal arts institution the "truth resists simplicity" (thank you, John Green!)

  Prior to coming to college I had quite a few dreams and aspirations; when I was little I wanted to be a dolphin trainer who trained them, with my own inventions, to respond to singing. That dream persisted for a while before it turned into me wanting to be an author and an actress. The actress dream continued for some time into high school, and then as I grew up more and went to Uganda for the first time that transitioned into working dually as an NGO manager and a documentary film maker. 

  This dream then was in flux as I delved deeper into the genius film world of Baz Luhrmann while studying contemporary gender issues. My senior year in high school, I basically came to the conclusion that I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew somewhere in THE BIG PICTURE was Africa and human rights issues. At the time, I was also falling deeply in love with my Art History class.

   So when entering college and people wanted an answer to the ever-pertinent question, “What’s your major?” (which, if you are the perpetrator of said question, STOP IT. NONE OF US KNOW FOR SURE AND IT ONLY STRESSES US OUT WHEN YOU ASK) I replied with Gender and African studies. Really for lack of a better articulation of what I saw myself doing ten years down the road.

   But, praise God, in the Fall of 2010 I enrolled in the Intro to Sociology course taught by the woman who is now my advisor. The class was incredible; my professor was hilarious and dynamic and engaging and bloody brilliant. I attribute much of what made me fall in love with sociology to being over the moon for her.

   I adore how sociology approaches social structures and people as a collective. Everything I have ever perceived about human nature or why poverty is a system, not an individual circumstance exclusively, was manifested in my intro class. While enrolled in Sociology last semester, though, I was also in an amazing history class that explored American history from 1945 to present day. In high school I had practically taken every history course offered and as such had developed a love for 20^th century, or Modern, history. Ensue a dilemma.

   After much soul-searching this semester and, at the very last possible second, registering for and taking my Religion seminar I came to the conclusion that a sociology major was the way to go with a double minor in History and Religion. I think it will behoove me in any further academic endeavors I undertake post-graduation. In critically studying and analyzing the way social structures exist in our culture as well as foreign cultures I think I will grow as an individual, and be able to utilize the tools gleaned from these courses to be an agent of change.

   And let’s be real, I just want to be my sociology professor when I grow up.

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current jam: “it’s still rock and roll to me” billy joel which just turned into “short skirt, long jacket” cake.

best thing in my life right now: i’m writing this on the green, in the sunshine, on my ghanaian adventure blanket next to grace. what about this is not the best? 

days until departure: 51

* A gracious dinner means the food is the same in all dining halls (or a large portion of them) and usually means it's extra-good. We have had a Thanksgiving gracious dinner, a Greek/Italian gracious dinner, etc. Tonight's was an "appetizer" gracious dinner. Just one more reason to consider a women's college, ladies. The food is superb.