Prompted

Winter 2018

Prompt: Winters in Iowa can be brutal.

My freshman year, the day we left for Kansas City on holiday break coincided with a massive snowstorm. Four of us stuffed into a classmate’s VW Bug, which we soon learned had no heat. It took a perilous 2 1/2 hours to slide and crawl to Des Moines, where the snow slowed. The highway was covered and total whiteout conditions made it impossible to see, so we stuck as close as we dared to the car in front of us, following its tail lights to stay on the road. At one point we followed the car into a rest stop without even knowing we’d exited! Thankfully, we made it home safely.
After that harrowing trip, I was grateful to have my family’s trusty rusty Chevy Suburban for my final three years at Grinnell. I must have jump-started half the cars on campus one January when temperatures dipped below zero.

Fall 2018

Prompt: Advice to your younger self about starting at Grinnell

Get ready to work harder than you have ever worked. That said, you don’t have to read every page of your assignments. No one will care what you majored in — only what you are passionate about. So, you should follow your passions and curiosities even if you don’t know how to make them academically relevant today. Make time to read for pleasure. Always ask why. Don’t worry if people like you; instead, ask if you like them. Savor and cherish your tutorial; it is an intellectual luxury you will not easily have the time for again. Push yourself to learn to write. Believe me, you are not a good enough writer yet. Use the Writing Lab. Fall in love. Stay up all night for Disco. Eat [a big cookie] daily. Write on the Burling bathroom walls.

1. Don’t accept advice from your older self.
2. But if you do … First, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Lots of them. In all areas. Painful as they are, mistakes will help you grow.
3. Be as kind and compassionate to others and yourself as possible.
4. Spend a year studying in a Spanish-speaking country. Regardless of your career, speaking Spanish will be super helpful.
5. Try to lay off the sugar. (I know, it’s still hard 34 years later.)
6. Realize your privilege as a straight, white, temporarily-abled middle-class male. Vow to resist systemic injustice in all its forms.
7. Play as much Frisbee® as you can. (This will come naturally.)
8. Take your work and the issues seriously, but yourself lightly. This will take lots of practice.
9. Don’t worry about making a lot of money. But earn enough to give back some, including to Grinnell.

Do:
• Go out and have fun with friends at weekends instead of learning and reviewing all day, because first, you deserve it, and second, you will find out moderate relaxation makes you more efficient.
• Join some conversations that are okay to join.
• Explore Grinnell; you will be surprised by what you find.

Don’t:
• Sign up for so many clubs that the inbox is crammed with emails you never open.
• Skip the gym day and reading materials.
• Feel incompetent at the beginning; it’s just a start and things will get better.

Summer 2018

Prompt: Rename our “That’s So Grinnellian” photo essay

Our prompt in the spring issue was a dud. Apparently, encapsulating the gist of a nebulous concept in a headline is not fun. We received responses from two people offering ideas for a new name for the photo essay.
Spring 2018

Prompt: Write a memoir in six words, no more, no less.

Lived fully. Loved deeply. Let go.

Teacher of science, theology, and life.

Life plans worked perfectly as unplanned.

Found: love, fulfillment.

Lost: 100 pounds.

Friend

Student

Traveler

Teacher

Wife

Mama