The Countdown

Election time in North Dakota is mad annoying. From the people to the ads-- it all screams "Republican!" and it's driving me crazy.

Last Friday, a debate was held in my intercultural class. The prompt was: Forced code-switching should be promoted in the United States.

For the debate we had to either sit on the strongly agree side, the strongly disagree side, or in the middle as undecided. Being the Erianna that I am, I sit in the middle. My only condition with the statement was language proficiency.

Now this is why I hate debates...

When my professor told us to go to the section we chose, I ended up being the only undecided person ( 🙄Yay, me. Another opportunity for the black girl to stand out even more. Challenge accepted).

So the debate starts.

Note: In my class there's two girls that really stick out. Not in a good way but in the most annoying way possible. Every class, they're verbally aggressive with their responses or questions that I can even tell gets on my teacher's nerves.

Each side goes back and fourth, and I chime in; repeat. As people make their argument they admit that they in fact are undecided. It confused and angered me. It was like if common sense mattered, those people should have sat with me BUT ANYWAY...

The common thread in everyone's argument was that no matter what side they stood for, they valued diversity and interacting with people of color, and yatta-yatta. The problem I had with that was, ok–– do they actually mean this outside of class? Like how can you sit in class and say these things but don't even engage in ways that supports that. Hell, you don't even talk to me and I'm the only black girl in your class!

Idk, it rubbed me the wrong way. If anything, it gave me another reason to put on my list why I hate– I MEAN LOVE North Dakota.

You have no idea how much better I will feel to be around people... like me. People who are as politically and socially woke as I am. So the Thanksgiving countdown has begun! In other words, I miss being in Seward. I miss seeing culture.

But after the debate situation, I'm like ok Eri, stop complaining, stop being so judgemental, this is a part of your process, this is why you're out here, to get new perspectives.

And that's all this is for me right now, a process. I just need some of my comfort zone back and I'm cool with feeling that way, too. #ThanksgivingWYA

I guess the lesson learned is that college isn't always full of happy new experiences and you have to be okay with that– for now.

Thanks for reading!

If you liked it, disliked, can relate, or just like my blog, share, and comment below,

E