Domestic Exchange Student Reflections
Smith College
(Ex) Changing - Oct. 27, 2014
As the semester gets tougher (the academic course load and social awkwardness intensifies), I’ve found within each weekend an opportunity to set out on some unique adventures. Whether I travel with a friend down south to show her a bit of what the AUC culture is like (homecoming, if that does it) or just catch a bus to Boston, I’m still searching for something. Sometimes, that something, a historic place, a familial meeting with long-lost cousins, or a sisterly bonding activity sustains me, refreshes me for that week, or at least for a few days. This past weekend, it was a trip to Boston. Not only did I travel to Boston, but I met another Spelman sister doing domestic exchange as well. At the very end of my trip, only three hours before I departed, I took a walk to Chinatown.
I don’t think I’d be able to appreciate a place this rich in history and culture without the experience of studying domestically. Now that I’ve been in New England for a few months, I am not so quick to take southern, African-American traditions for granted. What I consider my “all-black world” is not here. But I’ve found myself going, moving, finding and seeking to create a space where it would be, because there is absolutely nothing that has sustained me more than soul food dishes, a strong religious faith, broken English (yes, I said it), and grits. So, with that being said, walking to Chinatown reassured me that these communities, unwilling to sacrifice themselves and their cultures and traditions to meet the demands of America’s ever-changing capitalist market, are places that sustain them because just walking the streets of Chinatown has refreshed and sustained me.
Searching For Home - Oct. 20, 2014
I’ve never been realistic, or practical, or normal, or settled. I’ve always sought to create my own identity, my own reality, my own space. Whenever someone said, “This is the way it is,” I’ve always responded (verbally or non verbally), “This is the way it should be” or “This is the way I want it to be … and it will be.” I maneuver the world, from Dawson, Georgia to Spelman to Ghana, to Smith College, and in the coming months to India, in the way that southern Black womanhood has shaped my thinking, my curiosity, and my quest for truth. I am constantly evolving. I am constantly moving. I am constantly “settling down.” I am constantly searching for home. Welcome!
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Tabatha's Personal Blog.
