Busy people of few written words

I’ve been very pleased with my new-this-year Student Stories feature on the blog.  An attentive reader might ask, “Why so pleased?  They haven’t been writing much lately.”  True, critical reader.  But here’s why I’m happy.  When I asked each of the students if they wanted to inaugurate this blog theme, they all said yes.  I appreciate enthusiasm — this was my first team and I didn’t need to go to my bench!  When I met with each writer for the first time, I emphasized that there are plenty of places on the Fletcher web site to read interesting, but formulaic, student profiles.  My hope was that we would work together to develop ideas for posts, and I have basically gone along with any idea they’ve presented.  Overall, I didn’t know what the feature would look like when we launched it in October, but I knew that all would be clearer by the end of the academic year, in May.

But back to the fact that the writing tends to arrive in spurts (after winter break, for example).  In this case, the reasons why they’re not writing may be as interesting as what they would have written.  Let’s start with Maliheh.  She emailed me an apology last week for not having submitted a promised post, but she really needn’t have apologized — I know exactly what she’s up to.  She’s processing the bounty of acceptances she has received to PhD programs around the country.  Was I surprised to learn of her success?  No I was not.  Maliheh is amazing.  Don’t tell her I said that — she’s also humble.

What’s Mirza up to?  He told me late last semester that he took on a research project that was intellectually satisfying, but used a lot of his time.  Then, over the winter break, he and his musical partner revived their duo, Arms and Sleepers.  They played some local gigs, and planned an amazing tour for Mirza’s spring break. In Europe or Russia?  Don’t miss this opportunity to catch a performance — who knows whether this tour will be their last.

(I’d like to add a little practical note here.  One of the reasons Arms and Sleepers is back is that Mirza realized his earnings potential is greater building on a past success than taking a part-time campus job.  Many students are able to do something similar — consulting part time for a past employer, for example.  File that away in your mental financial plan!)

Back to the writers.  Scott has promised me a piece very soon.  Not much more to say there.  Roxanne continues to be very busy on campus with the Storytelling Forum (the website includes more and more content) and a new series of conversations about gender issues (curricular and more broadly) at Fletcher.  Nonetheless, I arrived at work this morning and found an email from Roxanne containing her next post.  I’ll share it as soon as I can.

Which leaves Manjula who, though an alumnus now, was the student who made me think that following students’ stories as they pursued their individual paths through Fletcher would be a good idea.  Manjula has a million things going on connected to his organization Educate Lanka.  A lot of them are in the “we’re a finalist” or “just need to sign the contract” phase, so we agreed to hold off on an EL update.  But the organization more than keeps him busy, and any free moments can be spent writing for a larger audience on topics such as Unleashing Potential Through Education.

As much as Educate Lanka fills Manjula’s days, he still sets aside time for other activities, such as getting married.  He shared some amazing wedding photos with me.  I would love to post every single one of them — they’re that beautiful — but I’ll settle for just this one.

Manjula told me that the wedding outfits that he and his bride, Chara, wore are traditional in Kandy, the region of Sri Lanka that Manjula comes from.  He explained that Kandy was the last kingdom in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and the traditional wedding attire derives from royal regalia.  He said, “The outfit I wore is called the Kandyan Nilame.  And Chara’s jewellery and the ceremony that we followed are also according to the Kandyan traditions.”

So, blog friends, that’s what my writers are up to.  Given their interesting busy lives, I’m happy to wait a little longer for their next posts.