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April 28, 2006
quick, what's the capital of ethiopia?!
My eyes spring open and I smile unbelievingly. I watch people walk past me talking in a language I know, not in a language from which I can only grasp a few words on people’s lips. All I can do is stand with my suitcases and watch people communicate and things unfold. I see familiar signs formed by strangers--foreign hands, belonging to friendly faces of people I do not know. The hands question, affirm, shout, and joke at each other. I find myself talking too. We talk like nothing is wrong with the world, our palms intertwining with each other in a sign language embrace.
If you open to page 34 of the most recent issue of Odyssey, you’ll see the above paragraph beginning my article about my experiences with competing for four years in the Deaf Academic Bowl. It was an incredible opportunity and I’m glad that I got to start it all my freshman year in high school. I got to meet so many awesome people and through Academic Bowl, I found out more about Gallaudet and finally cemented my decision to come here at the beginning of the second semester of my senior year.
This past weekend, Gallaudet and the Outreach Programs were bustling with preparing for the 2006 Nationals, welcoming ten teams from five regions from all over the United States, with the furthest being Edmonds-Woodway High School in Edmonds, WA and the closest being Woodson High School in Fairfax, VA. I was volunteering all weekend as a PowerPoint operator and scorekeeper/timer. It was a fun experience working behind the scenes, but was pretty hard not to stand up and blurt out the answer when both teams got it wrong.
With all that jazz done, I’m just puttering along and finishing up all of my final projects as well as studying for final exams. It’s funny how the word ‘final’ sneaks its way into our terminology as the semester nears to an end. I will have my final final exam, I will have my final goodbyes to my beloved friends before summer comes along, and I will go through my final day as a freshman. Just to imagine that four years from now I’ll be saying that I will go through my final day as a Gallaudet student is merely mind-boggling.
Enough with the unnecessary blabbering, I’ve got to get back to my Introduction to Education final take-home exam. After that, it’s to get cracking down on my English paper, and then it’s off to a group meeting for a Theatre project. Ultimately, what I’ll finally have to do is to just pack and hightail it out of here and enjoy my time off. I’ll be sure to update y’all about my summer plans soon.
By the way, the answer’s Addis Ababa. Thanks for reading!
con amistad, tyler
Posted by tyler at April 28, 2006 1:07 PM
