Thursday, March 22, 2012

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

Sorry this is late.  I drafted it late Wednesday night, then realized I wanted to sleep on it before posting.  Life is really busy, our spring concert is next week, the Annual Budget Drive is in full swing, and I'm trying to learn Python for the Natural Language Processing class.  I'm still *trying* to post on Monday-Wednesday-Friday.

Every student that graduates from Purdue is required to take Comm 114, a course on communication, speech, and working in groups.  As a required class, COM 114 draws from a larger pool of students than usual.  Most of my other classes were full of engineering students, or Spanish majors/minors.  But here I met a much wider variety of students than I had encountered so far.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Heritage

The first time I ever visited Huntsville, AL, it was on a business trip.  I walked into the office on a Thursday morning, and at some point my managers asked me if I was willing to fly to Huntsville that night.  When you are young and childfree, as I was, the only appropriate answer to that question was "Yes."

One of my first encounters was with a very Southern gentleman who promptly asked me that question that is the bane of all military brats, "Where are you from?"
"Uh, well, all over."
"Where'd you grow up?"
"Nebraska"
"Yankee!"

The thing about being a military Brat is that... while I have an awareness of regionalism in the U.S., I don't identify with it.  I identify as an American, and that's that.  One nation, no North or South, no East or West, just one nation.