hanging out at stanford

so, i was going to be on the computer long enough to check and write e-mails. but now that 'umi's left me to go with holo to pickup his car from the shop (another longer story later), i decided to drop a line from good ol' stanford. yes, stanford university.

i'm in norcal for the weekend with brute squad; we'll be at uc-santa cruz for the rest of the weekend competing at the labor day tournament. however, i decided that since 1) it's labor day weekend; 2) i haven't seen 'umi in almost two years; 3) i needed to have some fun before summer ended; 4) northern california is absolutely amazing at this time of the year; and 5) well, because i wanted to....that i would come out a day early to hang out with 'umi, get out of boston, and enjoy the long weekend.

so far, the trip's been awesome. i flew out here with betsy, rana, and krishna last night (hooray jetblue), and 'umi picked me up from the airport. we then went to in-and-out burger (exciting) for a late-night dinner, showered, and then met up with a few of her friends in downtown palo alto. we went to this irish club/pub, hung out, danced a little, but most of the time, 'umi and i spent the night catching each other up on our lives.

it's so nice to be able to have a conversation with a best friend i haven't seen in years (literally) like it was yesterday. we've grown and changed, but our friendship remains the same: steady, trusting, and weirdly predictable. it's comforting. we've experienced a lot on our own in the last five years, but the amazing thing is that we've had many similar social and academic experiences along the way.

we realized this in a conversation we had in the car ride from the airport last night. 'umi just got her master's in race and ethnic studies, so she's got one more awesome degree under her belt, and has been studying her butt off for the last 5-1/2 years. awesome, huh? the conversation began with a vague comment about not having or taking an opinion on anything (which is something i often found myself doing) during college....whether it was conversations with friends, peers, or professors. 'umi started to question why we felt this way, and how we came to be such "unopinionated" people. my reason was our education. i honestly think we weren't taught to be critical thinkers, rather, we were encouraged to express ourselves by thinking about our feelings and emotions.

i don't remember when i was asked to critically analyze a book/essay/paper/whatever, create an argument, research both sides, write a paper, and complete a presentation for public debate. we read through novels, plays, essays, and the sort, and were told to interpret what we thought the author was trying to say, and why we thought he/she thought that way. once this paper was turned in, there was no further discussion about the writing, and as such, we weren't subjected to our classmates points of views, opinions, or thoughts about the writing. and without that, we didn't criticize our own thoughts and words and think about it any other way.

another reason for this lack of opinions, at least from my point of view, is that i didn't think i had enough knowledge/understanding about the topic, and thus, didn't think it was fair to share an opinion without truly understanding the topic. this also relates to the fact that when i do share my opinion about anything, the basis for my opinion is truly experiential. the way i work and think and do things in my life are firmly based in the lessons i learned from the experiences i've had in the last 23 years of my life. i haven't found a philosopher who has been able to claerly explain what kind of philosophy on which my life is based, so it's easy for me to say that i'm not a "critical thinker" or that i don't know much about anything else but myself and the little world that i live in. if i found a writer/philosopher/thinker who could explain my life better than i can, then i think i'd be more open to the academic world and actually read and think about those who shared their opinions on the world.

not sure if that made sense, but it's out there. i'll re-read it at some point and write more later. 'umi's back from picking the car up, so i'm going to end it here for now.

hooray for friends!
-me : )