This Is The End.

Cue Adele coming in and singing "Skyfall" - but really, this is so surreal to think that this is (most likely) the last blogpost I will make as a student at Saint Michael's College. It's hard not to get emotional about all of the amazing times I've had being a student here, all of the friends I've made, all the unique experiences that I wouldn't have been able to get anywhere else. Working my way up from Ryan Hall to a townhouse in the 1's, I've regretfully climbed the ranks to a cap and gown in just a couple of weeks.

As a lot of you may know, I've been working on my book Seeing Change so much this semester that I've lost track of time a lot of the time. Some days felt so long working on this project, like the semester would never really end, but now that I'm here, it's unreal just how quickly time has passed. I experienced my senior year P-Day, which was incredible. I got inducted into four different honors societies. I will be graduating (hopefully) with a 3.9 GPA. I'm just so proud of the person I've become because of Saint Michael's, and I hope to take all of the knowledge, experience, and friendships I've gained here into the future.

Speaking of that, I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with my future...which is totally okay! For those of you who may be reading this and thinking you need a plan immediately after college, please don't stress if you don't end up having one immediately. I was so busy working on other stuff this semester that revamping my resume and applying for jobs were the last things on my mind, but there's always time for that. And who knows, maybe by waiting I'll have stumbled onto a new and more beneficial path for the future. You never know! But just in case, I did end up revamping my resume a couple of days ago.

But that's enough sad and adult things for one post. To top off this final post, I wanted to share some awesome times I've had this semester with all of you through pictures. I hope all of you are making the most out of what you have left in your semester. I know I'm going to miss Saint Michael's way too much when I graduate.

Free Cone Day! It was gorgeous out and I got to go with some great friends.

Of course, my book. This became my entire life very quickly, and although it was written for a class, I would write it over and over again. The LGBTQ community means so much to me, and I'm glad I put the time and effort into this that I did.

My friends Erin, Maya, and I on P-Day! P-Day was a tradition that I didn't really partake in my freshman and sophomore years because I was so antisocial, but I regret it deeply. It was such a blast coming out of my shell at Saint Michael's, and with great friends and friendly people everywhere, I found myself becoming more outgoing every day.

Take care, readers! It's been a blast writing for Saint Michael's, and I hope you've enjoyed following my crazy, hectic, and amazing life!

Spreading My Roots.

Happy Monday (technically)! And more importantly, happy first official warm weekend in Vermont this year! It's been a long time coming, I know. Trust me, I've been just as sick of the cold that wouldn't seem to go away as I'm sure most of you have been. I'm excited to finally be able to wear shorts outside, sleep with my window open, and just enjoy some nicer weather!

I wanted to take some time today to talk to you all about a course that I feel like I don't talk about enough that I'm taking this semester - Global Communication and Culture. It's a 200-level MJD course taught by Professor Hyde about various aspects of the world, ranging from communication to music to food. It's been an eye-opening class for me because I've never taken such a multi-faceted class at Saint Mike's while learning so much about different parts of the world and other cultures. I'm always interested and engaged in class, and it always goes by so quick!

Now I know what some of you may be thinking - if you've explored the MJD major a bit and talked to some students who major or minor in it, you've probably heard about Global Comm. being challenging and a lot of work. That's not a lie, it definitely is. Taking it at the same time as my senior seminar has been anything but easy, but it's also been such a rewarding experience. For a big project in the class, you have to design a website using either Adobe Dreamweaver or Adobe Flash about a country in the world that is randomly assigned to you. Not only do you design this website, but you also research a ton of information on it ranging from political and ethnic tensions to dominant forms of media use.

For my country, I got Myanmar - a quickly developing country in southeast Asia that has had its fair share of struggles in its lifetime. I never thought I could learn so much about another country in the world so quickly - sometimes I think I know more about Myanmar now than I do about the U.S. because of this project! Myanmar has been ruled by a militaristic government for a number of years, but has recently fought for democracy with some success (and I mean recently as in the last decade or so). Furthermore, Myanmar is battling religious tensions between Buddhists and Muslims as well as huge class and economic tensions between rural areas and more rapidly evolving urban areas like Yangon and Mandalay. 

These two images compare and contrast what you would see in more rural parts of Myanmar versus what you would typically find in a tourism website or popular magazine of some sort promoting Myanmar, just to give you a perspective of how radically different life is in certain parts of the country.

The point of this post is to not believe everything you see in popular media, especially tourism and marketing campaigns, about certain countries. These sorts of campaigns aim specifically at westerners much of the time in order to get them to visit the country, so of course they're going to show you what you want to see, but the reality is that much of Myanmar is not like the pretty photoshopped pictures. Don't get me wrong, Myanmar is a beautiful place with some really amazing people from all different backgrounds, but it's time that we acknowledged the realities of a place over what we want to see. This goes for any country. Please do your research before going anywhere and never take what you see off of tourism websites to be the whole truth.

For those of you who are interested in this class from what I've said, I highly recommend you take it! It's required for both MJD majors and minors, but even if you're not either of those, you could try to talk to Professor Hyde and see what he thinks! He's a great professor and it's one of the most interesting classes I've ever taken at Saint Mike's hands down.

Mission Complete!

So, it's official - I'm a published author!

It feels so amazing to finally be done with my book. It's been such a crazy and hectic and rewarding experience, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Check it out!

It's tangible! It's in my hand! It's done!

Throughout the book, my partner and co-author Tara Keady and I covered a variety of topics ranging from LGBTQ people in the American military to a new take on gender nonconformity. We got to interview a bunch of amazing people who had incredible stories about their involvement in the LGBTQ community, how they have been involved in policies and activism concerning the LGBTQ community, and even how they have combatted and overcome oppression in various parts of the world.

It was so awesome to be able to include all of these great people while simultaneously analyzing a facet of life I'm not only personally involved in, but very fascinated by. I got to discuss shows like Orange Is the New Black and Empire while also going into my background as an openly gender fluid male in the American military. It was an experience that would have been wildly out of my comfort zone to do just three years ago, but I'm so glad I did it now.

I'll keep you all posted on ordering details if you're interested in reading it! I'm excited to share it with all of you. :)