Something in Common

On Friday, the 11th, I arranged to meet LaJoya at 11:00am for coffee. So, at 11:10 on Friday when I was getting ready to take a shower, you can imagine my shock upon realizing that it was, in fact, Friday, and I had completely missed our meeting time. I sent a hurried email to Joy, including my cell number, and we were able to meet at 12:50 between classes. She was incredibly understanding about the whole thing, and when she asked if I was graduating in May and I answered "yes," she gave me a knowing look; she will be graduating as well and completely understands the mindset of a second-semester senior. We agreed to meet the next week, have coffee, and have a little chat.

Joy and I met on Monday to get coffee and chat, just after I handed off the scarf to the next wearer. Sitting and chatting with Joy, sharing coffee and cookies and stories about school and family, we found that we had a lot in common! It was wonderful to sit and chat with someone new, and I nearly lost track of time and missed my noon class! We agreed to meet up again later on in the semester and catch up.

Friday night was opening night for the UD Monologues. Usually, each cast member writes a one-sentence silly bio for the program (ie: Natalie cooks with the Spatula of Justice), and my bio for that weekend was "Anne has a very special scarf: [blog address]." I was so happy to wear the scarf for those performances. Each Monologue is a personal thought or a personal story, and each writer or performer puts a part of him/herself into the show. The stories are varied and told by very different people, but they all come together to make one great experience that the cast gets to share with the audience. For me, the UD Monologues is a show that intends to unite people, and wearing a scarf that many women had worn before me, and others would wear after, was a beautiful reminder of the true interconnectedness that we pride ourselves on at UD. Within this project, we are all different women, with different life experiences, but here we are at UD, sharing in this experience together.

Wearing the scarf while performing and listening to the stories of others made me wonder about the lives of the other women who had worn that scarf. Had they thought similar things? Had they dealt with similar situations? Had they experienced things that I could never understand? The beauty of the scarf is that it brings together all of these different women so that, no matter how different our lives may be, we have something in common now.

Anne