February 13, 2024
The Road Ahead
Last week was a challenging one, marked by slow progress due to both Matt and me falling ill with the mysterious GCIL sickness that has affected so many. These past few weeks have been a peculiar mix of feeling like I’ve accomplished nothing while simultaneously feeling as though I’ve been working tirelessly. As our deadlines…
Just Another Quarter at UW
I don’t even know what week it is right now; I just know I have stuff due on Wednesday and Friday. But that’s usually how it goes during the second half of the quarter, where I don’t even know what day it is or how long’s left, just that everything is suddenly creeping up, and…
February 12, 2024
A Good Weekend is the Best Medicine
To be blunt, for a good portion of the last couple of weeks I was straight up not having a good time. Like many of my comrades, I fell sick. I knew it was bad when I got effectively no sleep one night and told my roommate, “I think I need to go to the…
Home Cooking
Now, halfway through the program, I find myself missing my kitchen. Not friends or family, not my bed or even bathroom (though the idea of unlimited toilet paper tempts me sometimes), but the few square feet of space in which I am able to take the time to cook a meal in peace and quiet….
February 9, 2024
Moving Forward
At the end of our 6th week, it suddenly feels like everything is happening very quickly. Our last group trip is next week; our first group project and organization reports are due next week, and I’m already registering for next quarters classes. I look back on the time we’ve had here and wonder what I…
February 8, 2024
Ridgely’s Routine
After a nice weekend trip to Hampi filled with various adventures, we are back to the grind at UTC working with our organizations and preparing our first draft of our GCIL projects. With things starting to ramp up, stress has begun to build from trying to shape and refine our GCIL project, the personal pressure…
Hot Piles of Garbage
There’s hot piles of garbage everywhere. Hopefully you’re not about to read one. Many of my ideas are hot piles of garbage. Sometimes, my body feels like one. Even my cooking is sometimes a hot pile of garbage. I’ve always associated “hot piles of garbage” with something worthless, something so bad it’s beyond repair. That…
February 7, 2024
Pockets of Peace and Gratitude
I’ll be honest; the past week has been a struggle, grappling with my own emotions as we navigate through the halfway mark of the program. Each day feels like a battle to get out of bed and conquer the day. However, amidst the challenges, the unwavering support from fellow peers has become my source of…
Sometimes We Butterfly
It’s been a slippery slope this week because it seemed my health was only declining while we were going on our trip to Hampi. I truthfully really, really, really did not want to go but I had friends and mentors cheering me on to keep trying with my participation. I thought, maybe…. the fresh air…
February 6, 2024
Stepping Stones to Solving Grand Challenges
We arrived from our weekend trip to Hampi a little before midnight and woke up the next morning to over half of the GCILers in the various stages of illness, recovering but still ill, and about to be ill. With Casera and Matt falling into the ill category, I had my first “day off” since…
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