Why hello there family and friends… it has been a while since I’ve updated and this isn’t much of an update anyway, just some thoughts really…
I am back in Uganda, only for 3 weeks this time, but back nonetheless… The last 2 months have been a whirlwind adventure. From Australia to Colorado to New Hampshire to Egypt, and now Uganda for the rest of January!
Well, today is a big day for many reasons, first, my little brother Ian turns 6 today, and I wish more than anything I could be there to celebrate. He’s come such a long way in just a year… All MRI’s still coming back clear, all his hair has grown back and covers his scar, he’s the tallest one in his kindergarten class and is more active than ever!
Today is also a landmark in my personal life because 4 years ago from today I left for Uganda the first time. 4 years is a significant amount of time to be connected to people and places, the standard length of high school and college in fact.
Yesterday I spent the day in my friend Deo’s village, celebrating his graduation from Cornerstone Christian College in South Africa, it was amazing to see his village gather to congratulate him, and inspiring beyond comprehension to know Deo, and know the way he’s going to change his country.
I think about how the last 4 years have shaped and molded me, how they’ve changed me… how East Africa, Come Let’s Dance, and various domestic and international travels replaced the typical university years in my life.
So as this season of graduations is upon me, Deo isn’t the only one, my sister graduates high school in May, and Susan graduates university in May as well (I apologize Maloneys and Deublers for distracting her for so long) and so many others. I’ve thought of the course work and classes I’ve completed these last few years and I’ve compiled a brief sampling of my pass/fail classes right here for your viewing pleasure:
Making/Saving Money: Fail
Press Release, Grant, Website writing: Pass
Dancing: Double Pass
How to not constantly Facebook: Fail
Cement Mixing: Pass
Flossing kid’s teeth: Pass
Flossing my own teeth: Fail
US Cross Country Navigation: Pass
Greater Kampala Area Navigation: Fail (student gets lost an average of 3 times when out on own)
World Geography of places I’ve been: Pass (which is an ever climbing number of 38 states, 23 countries, and 6 continents, not that I’m bragging… ok, maybe I am)
World Geography of places I haven’t been: Fail (I still don’t know where China is)
Ugandan Community Development: Incomplete
How to Laugh at Oneself: Pass
How to Admit When One is Wrong: Fail
Functioning while hungover: Fail
Macaroni and Cheese, Spaghetti, Ramen, Toast, Gorp making: Pass
All other cooking: Fail
Killing huge effing cockroaches: Pass
Hosting Parasites: Pass
Reading more than 1 book a year: Fail
Keeping in touch: Fail
Speed and accuracy in longdrop and various other outdoor bathroom situations: Needs Improvement
Appearing Successful: Fail
Changing the World: Incomplete
Luckily, I’m the dean as well at this awesome university, so despite inadequate marks, I still say I can graduate quite happily to the older side of 23 even if it’s only for the sole purpose of this facebook note.
Also as I listened to Deo give a speech to everyone at his graduation party, I wondered about what I would say if given a similar opportunity, so here are my “graduation” words, as a sort of commencement speech but without a ceremony, no diplomas, and no list of 300-10,000 names…
MC: And now, for our commencement speaker, Miss Nicole Galovski
Marching Band plays “Life is a Highway” as I walk up on stage…
(Test mic, take deep breath) Wow! Can you believe it? We all made it, another 4 years of our lives completely gone with absolutely no chance of reliving them, and still no scientific bounds great enough to facilitate the production of a time machine. I think we’ve all come a long way in these last 4 years, some of us further than others… if you know what I mean. (Pause for laughter) But on a serious note, I think it’s important to remember the beginning when something is coming to an end. (Look pensive about own words)
When I first started this journey I, like most of you, had just seen Invisible Children and Blood Diamond. I had just listened to Bono explain why we needed to help Africa, and developed a million and one romantic ideas of the adventures to be had saving lives on the dark continent. Needless to say, upon arrival in Uganda, I was completely blindsided by reality. What could I do? Where were all the kids I could save? And there it was, my first important lesson: I don’t know very much, and I can do very little.
Despite being nothing I expected, making me feel of little worth, challenging my world view and forcing me to rethink everything I thought I could do with my life… I still loved it. It was the equivalent of a crazy playground with no rules, the first time you’re at summer camp and can jump in the lake with your clothes on, dorm life with no parents or an RA… Africa is adrenaline junkie, tragedy tramp Vegas.
And everything back then although dark, and brutal still somehow felt safe, that even though there were people dying all around me, death seemed like something very far from me and the people I knew. It’s overpowering the potency of naivety, the durability of the imaginary bulletproof vest youth possesses, and how quickly one sobers and immediately feels defenseless while walking in front of the firing squad of death and catastrophe.
Yes, our first years out on our own are difficult, for many of us it’s the first time we feel thick, cold loneliness, the first time we feel totally and completely meaningless, and leave home not knowing that we can’t ever return to the same place. BUT! This is also beautiful, for there is nothing more important than facing the repugnant truths about life, than diving down into the foul vexatious reality of our experiences and still seeing the grandeur.
And I have seen much grandeur.
(Clear throat) So here I stand, in front of you (consciously look around audience of 7 people), my family, my friends, my fellow learners and live-ers of the last 4 years, and I think it’s safe to say that we know more than we did, which still isn’t very much, and we’ve done more than we thought we could, which again, still isn’t very much… but it’s something. (Bow head and wait for applause)
That’s probably the worst commencement speech that’s never been given, it sure is a good thing I never went to college.
