Coming to Life

An excerpt from the tour guide life: everyone's favorite question is, what can GW give me that other universities can't? Last week, I got a very resounding answer.

A week ago, prolific Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison graced the GW campus for a one-night engagement in the Lisner. Having read one of her famous novels in high school, it felt like an unbelievable opportunity to get to see her in person. And that it was! Ms. Morrison has arguably done the most for black women in literature in the last few decades than any other author, and to see her sitting up on the all-too-familiar Lisner stage was nothing short of spectacular. She was funny and lighthearted in her storytelling, but also deeply moving and impassioned in her readings from old and new works alike. She even allowed a Q & A session afterwards, where I found she was completely approachable and down to Earth in responding to some intensive questions (typical GW kids). Ms. Morrison also has begun a project here at GW called Bench By the Road, and the new bench in her honor has been placed outside the Auditorium, so stop by and check it out if you're on campus!

This is the thing about GW, though. Where else can you see one of the most groundbreaking writers in modern literature speak FOR FREE on a regular weeknight? It's opportunities like these that make this the place to be. In addition, it really brings what we learn in the classroom out and into a new light, coming full circle. I read this book in high school, saw its author speak in college, and found myself tremendously moved and compelled to go back and re-examine her work now as an older, more mature and capable person. Maybe I'm just nerdy, but I love to learn, and more importantly, I love to relearn, building upon things I already know with new ways of thinking. It is seeing influential people like Toni Morrison that gives a student like me an opportunity to grow and rethink the opinions I have already set forth on the world around me. Moments like that, I just feel honored to be here.

I'll be back soon to tell you all about the whirlwind of my academic/extra-curricular life here at the G-Dub, but until then, pour your heart out to gmdepalo@gwmail.gwu.edu. And also, check out my fellow blogger Shireen's post on Ms. Morrison's night in the Lisner: http://gwadmissions.blogspot.com/2011/09/toni-morrison.html.

See you around campus,
Gina Michele