The first time since I’ve graduated! A friend of mine and I made last minute plans to go to the Haven meeting tonight, and the trip to Beth’s afterward, so I found myself on campus again. It was really great, I have to say. It felt like visiting home, in a sense - everything seemed nostalgic and comforting, but I knew that I no longer quite belonged the way I once did. I quite enjoyed it.
Going to a Haven meeting was really nice as well. It was pretty strange in some ways though. I feel like the leadership team this year has a rather different objective in mind for the group. Rather than focusing on political movement within the university, their focus seems to be building a strong community in the group. Honestly, I think it is great what they are doing. Haven has experienced so much political turmoil in the 5 years past and because of the exhaustive outward focus on upward mobility, the group never had a close bond between its members. To put it simply, last year we were too busy writing emails to the administration, reporters, faculty allies, etc. to follow up with and personally connect with the students who came to meetings. That is the environment we were forced to exist in, unfortunately. Now that Haven is considered an officially recognized campus group, with many of the same rights and privileges as campus clubs (enough to make what Haven does feasible), I think it is basking in the new found ability to reach out and build a really tight knit group of students.
Being at the meeting also meant I was able to see friends I hadn’t connected with in a while. It was wonderful seeing them! I miss SPU people, Haven people, other Sociology majors. One of my New Years plans is to put a lot more effort into my friendships, these people being a large chunk of the relationships I’m speaking of, because I love spending time with them and absolutely do not do it enough. And as I mentioned, after the meeting we went to Beth’s which was great fun.
I got to visit SPU and Beth’s, one of my favorite places with so many SPU memories attached to it in the same night! It was really delightful.
