Why I Chose… FIU

It came that time to search for the next step, a university. A few different packets came in, including Vassar, Occidental College, and even The College London.

They were very expensive, and I didn't see how I was going to go. I didn't think about loans, and I didn't think I wanted any. So, I looked inward, and did the multi-university application for Florida, checking only FSU and FIU.

I knew a bunch of my high school friends were going to UF, and that was enough of a deterrent. I wanted to try making new friends after being with the same people for, a good number of them, almost four years. I wanted new experiences, especially since I'd felt so… disenchanted that high school life wasn't like Clueless. I wanted to try remaking myself again.

I wanted to be away from my family, yet close enough that I could visit comfort when I felt like it.

I'd become a burgeoning homosexual who'd only just begun to explore things and that would be another plus, going to university. Ultimately, I chose FIU because I felt I'd be closer to the "gay life." And I did grow in that regard. I had a number of experiences about which I could probably write a book, and I helped form, and eventually became a brother of,  my Delta Lambda Phi chapter.

I became an Anthropology degree graduate. I'd increased my Japanese ability. I'd even started my Masters in Linguistics, though I didn't follow through with my first semester (something which probably has left a dark mark for me with many of the faculty). I had promise.

I just feared debt, especially. Looking back, they probably would have helped me had I given them the opportunity. I was so insular.

But I chose FIU because I believed it would grant me a trove of memories and experiences about which I can reflect, and would allow me to grow as a person.

That it did.

#RASP - Rant Around Several Paragraphs #4: Facebook Feeds

I have a like/hate relationship with Facebook.

I like it because it helps me keep tabs on my friends, brothers, and geographically distant family. It helps me to get to know people I don't see fairly regularly a little better.

On this point, my hate comes out as well: Facebook likes to cater my feed to those with whom I've had relatively frequent or recent contact on Facebook or Messenger. This angers me.

I want to get to know all my friends, and to know what's going on in their heads or hearts. Biasing my feed to only those with whom I actually click a like or something occludes the posts of those who don't post very often. Facebook does this intentionally, of course, because they want your eyeballs, thumbs, and ears on Facebook (and hopefully some of your money, too) 24/7, if they can help it.
Enticing, one, therefore, to stay on there with things they know you'll continue to like and see out makes it worth their while to a have the feeds display that way.

I want, though, to see everyone's stuff. I want the "Most Recent" feed to be something I can default to. I want, when the Facebook app updates, to have the "Sound Off" on the feed option remain off!

I remember the good old days of "The Facebook" with virtual flinging of sheep and various little apps that included national flags of one's heritage, and when one could really connect with one's schoolmates. Then they'd rolled out neighborhoods, and I'd reluctantly had to have Miami as my secondary to FIU. That's still an option in Facebook, actually, a grandfathered thing.

As they've grown more commercial, more ubiquitous, and people are using Facebook for things that had fallen to other places to fill (Messenger for WhatsApp, even though WhatsApp is now a Facebook property anyway; Marketplace for Craig's List; Jobs for pretty much any job board; Memories for TimeHop or just going over one's feed nostalgically; Reviews for Yelp). It's gotten insane. I was on reddit the other day and someone was complaining about the Facebook app size, and all I had to say was, in more creative wording, think about how Facebook has become more than just a social network.

It's become a life draw for some people,

I just want to be able to have "Most Recent" be default so I can know what's going on in all my friends' lives and not just whomever Facebook determines is "worth" my time.

Theorizing the unexpected advocate

Theorizing the unexpected advocate

Yesim Darici did not pursue a career in advocacy. She is a scientist – a theoretical and experimental physicist with […]

Read it on news.fiu.edu

This woman is quite a thing. I wish I'd gotten to meet her.

I'd joined the Women's Studies program as a certificate candidate partly because I'd garnered nearly enough credits to get one anyway. I don't regret that decision, because I think it's brought me out of my (still quite hard and all-encompassing) shell a bit.

Seeing someone so tenacious who didn't let anyone stand in her way — though it seems she didn't notice anyway — become the director of a program that allows free thought, forward thinking, and embraces the spirit of debate and public speech is very refreshing.

But then there's this…

The FIU Instagram account had posted a picture of Dr Darici and that seemed to spawn some heated discussion on the worth of a Women's Studies degree (since the degree program itself is an option as well; the certificate was what I'd gone with, though). It was a little tense, partly because people were borderline throwing flip-off emojis (and even the Instagram account curator had hashtagged "smh").

It embodied the spirit of relatively civil discussion, though, and so that's what makes me a little glad on it. The person who'd initially instigated it, he even seemed to understand a little better why people defended the program (since he saw it, and generally seees things, as if you can't see a direct job correlation to the degree program, the degree program is worthless).

That's rather like my degree, Sociology and Anthropology. I'm nowhere near a professional anthropologist, nor am I a linguist officially. I do put my skills to work, and they help me as far as understanding people and the world. And then my certificate has helped me in expressing those thoughts a little more cogently.

So, thank you, FIU, for renewing my mind.

And now that I'm working, I can actually give back sometime relatively soon.