when i think of seattle i think of real comforting greys some heavenly blues and every now and then some specks of that yellow i like so much and orange-tones. i think of blue note jazz and some good-intentioned laughs with good-intentioned people. it is different, and it isn’t the bay but the bay is home and how can you compare anything to home? yeah? yeah. but i had a really great time, and meeting some of the professors was really wonderful - the global african studies professor who i had dinner with had a really heavy laugh and was so kind. i told him i was undecided when it came to majors and he said “that’s good” then the professor who interviewed me, hairline receding, he held my handshake longer then the others and told me to seek him out at dinner. “i don’t tell people this, but i was apart of the SNCC in mississippi - if you come to this school and ever want to talk about the civil rights movement, you come straight to me” i told him that meant the world to me. he’ll vouch for me, i know it.

and the people i met were so good to me. i stayed with the president of seattle u’s society of feminists and she had a soft voice, and a great apartment. she took me to see hamlet and would point things out to me, she wants to head to the roots - literally, get down and dirty with plants, and when i told her i was going to see a south asian version of vagina monologues she turns to me wide-eyed and happy “YONI KI BAAT!” and then the other sullivan leaders hilarious change-makers. seeing asha and matt was so nice, aimlessly walking up and down the library frantically practicing my speech was nice too. 

i woke up real early in the morning to catch a shuttle back to the airport, and my movements were really quiet, but i left a note for the girl i was staying with and i hope she got it. outside in the seattle cold, silently waiting for this shuttle, worried that i was going to miss my flight. “non stop to san jose” and all i could do was SLEEP.