A week among no other

There are certain weeks when I have very little to write about for this column, but this past week was not one of them. It seems like all of the exciting moments this semester were all meant to happen during this past seven-day span. So it goes.
Some of my favorite moments here at college have also been the most underrated. Like, for example, the “toast incident” at Lawrence this past Tuesday was one that I will remember fondly for years to come. Long story short, my friend Katie and I were waiting for her lone piece of toast to finish up and slide onto her plate when she noticed that it had caught on fire in the toaster. In a moment of slight panic, she called over a worker, who fixed the “problem” with a composed collectivity that was especially apparent next to our hysterical demeanors.
Aside from the dining hall fiasco, three other “events” deserve a shout-out in this week’s column. They include the week’s edition of Sykes After Dark, the weekly documentary viewing, and an interesting (although I’m not sure whether that word does it justice) Sociology class.
Now, I’m not keen on elaborating about how my academic life is going for the entire campus to read as they like. It’s not that I’m a slacker or anything like that, it just doesn’t seem that interesting for me to include. But Thursday’s Sociology class definitely earned a spot. Here’s a little background information to bring you up to speed: for the past two or so weeks we’ve been covering various social inequalities. We had already gone over the chapters about gender and class inequality, so Thursday’s topic of discussion was on race and ethnicity.
Our professor started off by asking us what the definitions of those two words were. The class went quiet; a few people eventually raised their hand to offer up some guesses, but none of them were entirely correct. The rest of the class was spent debating definitions and examples, along with some occasional note taking. It was probably the sensitivity of the subject matter, but that class was the most tense out of all of them so far. It was like, no matter what anyone said or offered up as an answer, he or she had to be careful as to not offend someone. It dawned on me that we were all in college, and still didn’t know or weren’t completely sure of the differences between ethnicity and race. Just thinking about it now still kind of gives me goose bumps.
That same night was the weekly documentary showing at Sykes. The movie this week was Restrepo, which told the story of the Second Platoon’s mission at Korangal Valley in Afghanistan. The film was also coordinated with West Chester’s Big Read program. After some minor technical difficulties at the theater (projector issues), the crowd and I made our way up the stairs to Ballroom C to start the viewing. After the movie ended, there was a discussion led by professor Bob Kodosky. Both the movie and the discussion afterward were greatly informative and eye-opening. Feeling bad for the small delay, the Student Activities Council, SAC, even handed out free candy afterwards, much to my appreciation.
Perhaps my favorite event this week was Sykes After Dark. I haven’t been able to include much about their events because my articles are always due by Friday afternoon. But my awesome section editor Joy Wilson granted me a one-day extension for this issue, so I knew I had to write about it. This Friday’s event was “Voices in Power: Poetry & Open Mic” night hosted by West Chester’s own Poesis club. I convinced Katie and Ellen to tag along with me, and I read two of my original poems. It felt nerve-racking as hell, but the satisfaction of stepping out of my comfort zone was so much more rewarding. The whole event was a great success.
Even more successful than Sykes After Dark was this entire past week itself. There was never a dull moment or a shortage of interesting ones either. I have high expectations that next week will be just as fascinating, minus the dining hall debacle of course. I hope that at some point this semester you have a week like mine. Until next time friends, happy toasting.
Rachel Alfiero is a first-year student majoring in communication studies. She can be reached at RA806657@wcupa.edu.