An Honor and A Privilege
Oh, hi there.
First of all, where are the comments? C’mon people! Where’s my audience? Where’s the feedback? You lovin’ this? You hatin’ it? Drop me a line. You know, leave me a comment. Or two. Or fifty.
Okay, now for the nitty-gritty. Let’s rewind to Monday night. I received a phone call from a gal at the Interfaith Youth Core offices asking me to speak with Eboo Patel for a VIP group of people. I tinkered around with my schedule and made sure I was available for the opportunity.
It was such a great time. It turns out the talk was for Chicago Ideas Week, which is essentially the TED conference of Chicago. This was super exciting news for me, as I am obsessed with TED talks. Especially this one (it will change the way you think about selling ideas forever). It was great to share my interfaith experiences with some folks attending the conference, and it was an honor to share the podium with Eboo. I’m so grateful to have that experience under my belt. It was low-key, but it meant a lot to me.
Fast forward to now.
I am working on 193801984 things at the moment. I have a couple papers due Friday, a research paper to be worked on continuously for theology, another for philosophy, a few interfaith events to plan, theology capstone paper to be thinking about—the life of a student is a busy one! You know what? I love it, though. We’re at a really exciting place in our lives. It is our job to learn as much as possible and to share it with our peers. Sometimes I get frustrated at how unpopular of a notion that seems. It’s so neat, though! Being a scholar is our first and foremost responsibility at this juncture and we have so many resources at our disposal, we have great faculty and staff to support us, it’s awesome. Call me a dweeb, but I feel this is a great time in life. You know what else? We pay so much for it; let’s milk the experience for all its worth, and there’s so much worth here! I hope people aren’t doing this just for a piece of paper; that would be such a sad affair.
Wow, that sounded preachy. Sorry about that, folks. Excuse me while I step off my soapbox now.
I suppose that’s all to update for now. Until next time…
Hanna, My daughter Mary is a freshman at Dominican and I have been discussing with her a proposal to start a “Better Together” like organization at Mary’s former high school (Carl Sandburg HS in Orland Park. I would love to discuss the idea with you and Dr. Patel. Could you send me your email or Dr. Patel’s email? I left a message at Inter-Faith Youth Corp but did not receive a response. Thanks for your help! John Benz
First, thank you for dropping by my blog, John! I think that’s an excellent idea to start something like Better Together at a high school, though I know Interfaith Youth Core focuses on college campuses. This is not to say, though, that you shouldn’t start something like it at a high school. In fact, I would highly encourage it! I would love to talk more with you about the potential, and my email is: minkhann@my.dom.edu. As far as Eboo’s email, I’m actually not sure what it is. Lastly, I would love to meet your daughter, too and talk with her about how the Better Together group can be a resource for her.