Looking back

As Congress mulls over SOPA and PIPA, I blog away, happily taking advantage of the freedom of our internet, soaking up and adding to the information pool.

I’m back at SIU’s  Morris Library, at a window seat (the best kind) sipping on a caramel latte (the best kind), content to be back at home in my home-away-from home that is this library and this campus.

My experience with National Geographic came to end about a month ago. I still have things to say and my geographic education continues, but for now, the blog will be on stand-still.

I left NGS headquarters loaded down with canvas bags filled with the books I had collected throughout the semester, a blow-up globe, mind full of “what now?” questions, heavy heart, and eyes on the ground. I walked towards the bus-stop, feet moving out of habit. Lo and behold, there was a Starbucks giftcard on the ground! It stopped me in my tracks, and I welcomed the distraction. It was one of those moments where you don’t want to go home. You don’t really want to be anywhere, you  just want to lull about, be between spaces. I wanted the geography of lost.

And so, I detoured. I purchased my free coffee (a final gift from DC, perhaps?), and started walking south. Dead-ending in Lafayette Square,  I sat on a bench in front of the White House, my books on my lap, wondering what the Obamas were up to. I felt melancholy, reminiscent, and above all,  grateful. I adored my time in DC. It was thrilling to work at the society which had first sparked my interest in people, place, the environment, words even, as I thumbed through National Geographic as a child.

An American girl in an American city; sitting in front of the White House, an international symbol for education, freedom, and power… gosh, I felt blessed. I felt overwhelmed. The answer to my “what’s next?” question clearly was: “whatever you would like.”

By the time my coffee had gone cold and my fingers had numbed and the sun had set, I had snapped out of my musings and boarded the bus, heading “home” to Columbia Heights for the last time. I was joined the next morning by two mid-western friends, who drove out to pick me up and bring me home. We spent the weekend trekking about the monuments, ate Portuguese-Mozambiqan food, packed up my stuff, and on Monday, we drove west.

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After I graduate in May, I’ll be getting married. In June, Graduate School officially begins. Still in the Geography department, but focusing more on the administration of sustainability in higher education institutions. So a busy few months, to be sure. The adventures in the geography of learning just keep on coming.