The intermission smile. 

I grew up watching Indian movies before they evolved to the famous Bollywood, with the cool English subtitles, beautiful fashion, and modern flavors. Little wonder I was able to dance along to the nonstop Indian songs played during the TAMU International Student Services (ISS) welcome party some weeks ago – rolling my eyes!

True story, my sisters and I would cry uncontrollably whenever we watched an injustice, or an unrequited love story, or a truly happy ending, without fully understanding the language being spoken. We made sense of the body gestures, elevated intonations, animated expressions, and great visuals to follow the plots and storyline. We even learned a few Hindi words like Namaste, pyare and shukriya, which means good morning, love, and thank you respectively – it makes me a little bit multilingual-ish. Those days were tough, now with cool subtitles, it is so much better! To my point, these movies always had intermissions, which were breaks at the mid-point or interval, signaling they were about halfway through. That would be the moment where viewers could grab more popcorn, get a breather, take a bathroom break, stretch their legs, or get anxious over what may likely happen to their favorite character, and some just want the movie to be over like yesterday.

I want to think we are right at the intermission of our fall semester. The first 7 weeks are done, and by now we have formed heroes and villains in our interactions (there are always villains). Some may have even developed coping strategies and favorite moments or even safe places to recharge. If you have had as much fun as I, that is awesome! And if you are still struggling with those commitments, as I am with my food journal, then we are family. Interestingly, I have gotten to love my professors every passing day. When you come from a place where it is almost impossible to look your professor in the eye without getting a fail in that course, then you will understand the sharp contrast in community, respect, and genuine care for student success that is shown by most faculty on this campus. Oh yes, I attended the Aggie Women first Thursday speaker series on “developing mental resilience” and I participated in some skills enhancing workshops, like the POWER Writing Studios (check those emails!).

 

I know the grad school schedule is tight, but I have had so many great moments in class, extracurricular engagements, at the church, with my fellow grad friends, and my supportive family. Perhaps some of us are yet to figure out what even works for us, and that is ok. Whichever dot on the line you may find yourself in the first half of this fall semester script, know that you are in a perfect mid spot. You are just where you should be, and it doesn’t matter how twisted or fabulous it has been, you are authentic, and you will make the best out of this in a matter of weeks. I guarantee you that. I know this because after the intermission, the blockbuster movie always got better and more entertaining. It is the next half, packed with some sort of good karma to make up of for the things that didn’t quite work well in the first half. You get to see couples elope (this is not an endorsement on eloping), bullies being dethroned, the bad guys getting what they deserved, and most notably great mojo and true love excel. So, now is the time to do some breathing exercises, affirm your essence and virtues, visualize how you want the next few weeks to play out, imagine the actors, and plug yourself into the right action, then, go for it… the exact same way those 3 points made Aggies BTHO BAMA!

 

– Woome

Olawunmi Ilesanmi is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications.