Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Classmate Interview

Karen Schwartzman is a senior English major at Wittenberg University, just like me. She lives in a house that I can see from my own front porch, and she and I are exceptions to the wide assumption that Wittenberg guarantees the small-campus atmosphere where "everybody knows everybody else." We had never met before sitting next to each other in Journalism class on Monday.

An unfamiliar face is hard to come by in this place, and the more I get to know Karen, the more I wonder how it's possible that we have never crossed paths until this point. From our initial conversation, it's hard to differentiate exactly which one of us asked which questions, because we answered each one the same way - in agreement.
"Have you taken a class with D'Arcy before?"

"Yeah, I had her for Creative Non-fiction."
"Me too! Non-fiction is my favorite genre of writing."
"Me too! What are your plans for after graduation?"
"I don't really have any yet."

"Me too!"

Wearing a gray hoodie and drinking out of a pink plastic water bottle, Karen appears to be a pretty average college student. Her hobbies include reading, writing, and playing the guitar, which she taught herself to do. She admits that this musical skill may have led to her current obsession with the video game Guitar Hero. She also enjoys Thai food and horseback riding, and she hates wooden popsicle sticks.
She's a fan of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series' (me too!), and she read the Twilight books "before the whole thing got popular," and admits that the Stephenie Myers books aren't exactly well-written, but just "really, really addicting."
Karen has lived in Nashville, TN her whole life but looks forward to moving elsewhere after college, ideally Colorado, or maybe the East Coast. She spent the past semester abroad in Australia and has a passion for traveling. Her options are wide open for post-Wittenberg activities, but she's looking into joining the Peace Corps or a similar program that involves travel.

In spite of our many similarities, I did find one difference between myself and Karen. "I can't do Mexican food. I don't like cilantro," Karen tells me. I'm baffled. Mexican food happens to be my very favorite. But I don't take any offense to this confession, especially after we both revert back to our state of accord, this time agreeing on the fact that cheese is, indeed, awesome.

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