Prayers for Taylor Anderson

Taylor Anderson is a Virginia native. She attended St. Catherine's School in Richmond, Virginia. She graduated from our college, Randolph-Macon College, in 2008. She was a member of Macon's Alpha Gamma Delta chapter and was an Asian Studies minor. I cannot remember her major. She joined the Jet program the summer she graduated and this summer will be the end of her third year. She lives in Ishinomaki which is one of several cities that had 10,000 people disappear after the earthquake and the 30-foot tsunami. She is petite in height. She was last seen leaving the elementary school [likely on her bicycle], prior to the tsunami hitting but after the earthquake had occurred.

Prayers would be so helpful right now, as this disaster now has a face for me. To clarify, I am not saying I didn't care before, but now I am feeling more intense emotions over this situation. I really am trying to be positive while still being a realist. I hope you all feel the same way. Prayers and donations to the Red Cross are likely the most effective, so please join me in caring and giving.

YouTube, CBS coverage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCiqrtuamOo

Forever Prep

Hello ladies! Well this adorable young man was staring up at me when I got home yesterday. Virginia Living is an incredible magazine that my Mom and I have subscribed to since it was first published several years ago. It reminds me of "W" with its oversize format but the pages are heavy and glossy, like national magazines... used... to be. So every month I look forward to getting this magazine at home. This issue is the April 2011 issue and the cover feature is called "Forever Prep."

The story inside (starting on page 102) is fantastic, as it discusses the movement behind the Official Preppy Handbook and how it had a surge that re-occurred last year with True Prep (both of which I own, and enjoy for a good chuckle). More specifically, "Forever Prep" mentions how Virginia really has always been a good bit 'preppy,' but that we have really always referred to it as a 'traditional' lifestyle/fashion statement/etc. instead.

As the article states, summer is a verb (Alice!), and yes, we do go by the Old Dominion moniker. Most of us own at least one Jefferson cup, had cotillion and ballet classes, rode in fox hunts, attended steeplechase and went to a single-sex Episcopalian boarding school. Oh, and by the way, even though some silly young women at Randolph-Macon College wear socks with their boat shoes, if you are a real 'Vuh-gin-ian,' you know that is not acceptable and just looks ridiculous. Do you wear socks with your Rainbows? No. So these are your closed-toe equivalent! I am so happy that they chose Hampden-Sydney College and Sweet Briar as the models for this shoot, seeing as the campus is lovely and these men and women do often wear the garb shown (I would know, I attended SBC... natch it was for one semester... but still I did grow up around here)! Here are some more points from Virginia Living about the fashion of women and men in the Commonwealth of Virginia:
Following up on this article, I was very excited to pick up today a booklet on the 78th Annual Historic Garden Week in Virginia. To say that this event is an event, darlin, it is THE event! It is where women compete to have the best gardens, the most beautiful homes and the event, natch, has the Garden Club of Virginia involved. Okay maybe not all people compete, but a lot of them do as getting on the tour is difficult! As a Virginian with both a mother and two grandmothers as current (and former!) officers of their Garden Club chapters in VA, you know I am socially obligated to attend and I love every minute of it!

As you can see, Virgina Living's "Forever Prep" included a list of Virginia's Preppiest Events, which I have kindly included below:

And yes, you can see that #1 event listed is the thing I speak of above. Coincidence? I think not! ha!

"Forever Prep" really is a flattering look at what life is like in Virginia. For me, a native, it is one of the most realistic reflections into this world that is not necessarily about money anymore. It is about culture, tradition and embracing the values that you hold to a highest standard.

Photo Credits go to Virginia Living magazine and photographer Cade Martin. Text in the images provided was written by Caroline Kettlewell.

Ask Sydney

Students walking for Relay for Life


A classmate of mine is not graduating this year. I would like to share you her story, which she included in a student-wide email. The next email after her story is about what Randolph-Macon College plans to do to help Sydney and people like her.

Here is Sydney!

"My name is Sydney, and you may have been wondering what exactly you were supposed to "Ask" me. Well, here is my story, so you can form the right questions.

In June of 2008 I had a simple surgery performed in order to remove a mysterious bump in my hand. All 3 of the medical professionals I had consulted thought it was a harmless ganglion cyst. After the surgery, the surgeon told me that he didn't know what “it” was. Not only had the surgeon never seen anything like it, but neither had any of the pathologists in Austin, TX (my hometown). The "cyst", that was later learned was actually a tumor, was sent to Massachusetts General, where it was diagnosed as a Rhabdomyosarcoma.

Rhadomyosarcoma is a rare pediatric cancer of the muscle cells most commonly found in the lungs. Sarcomas make up 1% of all cancers diagnosed, and there are fewer than 400 cases of rhadomysarcoma around the world a year. So instead of planning a fantastic junior year of college with my best friends at Randolph-Macon, I was trying to figure out how to save my life. Unfortunately, these plans included dropping out of school, and moving to Houston, Tx. for two years. I no longer had to worry about when my next test was or when my next paper was due, but rather trying to have a life to get to live.

Luckily my story has a happy ending. After 2 impromptu surgeries, 3 emergency stays in the ER, losing my hair twice, 15 rounds of chemotherapy, and 30 radiation treatments I have won my battle against cancer. Sadly not everyone who fights this battle has the same outcome.

Foundations such as the American Cancer Society have donated and supported cancer patients like myself. Without all of the time and effort the professionals as well as people who participate in events, like Relay for Life, have given, you may never had the opportunity to ask me... Please support Relay for Life and raise money to help find a cure for cancer.

We are not victims, we are survivors.

We will not die from cancer, we will live with it.

Thank you in advance,

Sydney"


Here is Sydney at the 2010 Relay for Life


========================================================

The Kappa Alpha Order [Zeta Chapter] provided refreshments at the 2010 Relay for Life

Good Morning Randolph-Macon College,

I know you have all had your various questions throughout the week: "Who is Sydney?" "Is that OUR Sydney?" "What are we supposed to 'Ask' her?" And that was exactly the point... to make you ask questions. The bright neon signs caught your attention, and the lack of detail kept it. Now we are filling in the blanks. We can answer your questions, so PLEASE ask them. We are Relay for Life of Randolph-Macon.

Today the Relay for Life Committee members are wearing World Hope shirts and/or buttons encouraging you to "ASK SYDNEY" or "Ask me about Relay". We know Sydney. We know her story. BUT we also know Relay; something Sydney was a active participant in long before her diagnosis. We each Relay for many different reasons. Some of us have lost parents to cancer, others have watched our friends fight this horrible disease. And so we Relay.

On April 30th, 2011, Randolph Macon will host its 3rd Annual Relay for Life event. There will be food, entertainment, friends, and fun to be had by everyone. It is all in order to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Money that will go towards providing care for patients, and towards research for, what any cancer survivor or fighter will tell you they want most in the world, a cure.

Join a Team today! Or create your own team! http://www.relayforlife.org/randolphmacon

Be a part of something that has changed so may lives. Sydney was one of us. She was a student at Randolph-Macon who would have been graduating along side of many of us in May. And now she is a survivor, before that, a fighter. She beat the odds and is living and breathing today because of the medical advances made possible because of volunteers and donations to ACS.

Find your own reason to Relay and let's make cancer a thing of the past.


2010 Luminaria at the Relay for Life. Highly emotional for all of the student body with Sydney present. Around the Fountain on campus.

Vera Bradley

I love the overly patterned, cotton washing-machine-friendly goodness that is Vera Bradley.

While my passion has certainly waned a bit since my Freshman year of college in 2003, or even when I was in boarding school before that... I still like the comfy goodness that is Vera Bradley when I go grocery shopping or am bumming around Charlottesville. The purses are great when you don't want to be handed yet another plastic bag, just stick something in a Vera Bradley!

Here are some of my current favorites:

The Frannie, in Very Berry Paisley:


The Side-By-Side Tote in Make Me Blush:


The Weekender in Symphony in Hue: (I have the laptop case in this pattern)


The Gabby in Imperial Toile:


The Metropolitan in Blue Rhapsody:



Now, I am not one of those Vera Bradley people who collects things in a certain pattern, but I'd love to know what products you all have by this brand! Or do you think it is too juvenile for you?

Summer Reading: "College Girl" by Patricia Weitz

I just finished reading on Monday the book "College Girl" by Patricia Weitz. "College Girl" is a relatively short book, only 326 pages, and I read through it relatively quickly as it only took me two or three sittings to complete. The book is sad and tumultuous, focusing on the senior year of Natalie Bloom. Bloom is finishing up her college years at University of Connecticut, having transferred in from a community college. To say that Bloom is smart is an understatement, if you only focus on her bookish nature. She has no life smarts. Coming from a blue collar, factory working household, Bloom does not fit in with the typical UConn student. As she tries to adjust to UConn life, she gets further and more distant with her own family, whom she has never had a good relationship with.

What disturbed me was how much I had in common with Bloom, maybe not socio-economically, but experiences-wise. I wish that some of the text wasn't so graphic, at times it read like a romance novel, but I am assuming Weitz thought that being so graphic would make you realize how heightened Bloom's senses were to every experience she went through. She went to college a virgin so of course she lost her virginity with the first guy who paid her any attention. He liked her in the beginning, but then things change, and you want to scream at her to MOVE ON, but of course she doesn't for pages and pages. Weitz writes with a lot of adjectives, very descriptive, which helps the reader figure out the season and climate of every scene in the text.

There was a lot I could relate to, which are a bit too personal on here, and some are way too relateable to even fathom seeing them in writing. I found it interesting how this read almost like a memoir, which I liked a lot.

Here is a quote that hit home for me:

"I like you," he'd said.

I recoiled, and Jack saw it.

"What?" he asked, alarmed. "Did I say something wrong?"

My instincts told me to reply, "No, of course not," but I ignored them. "Why," I forced myself to ask, "do you ... 'like' me?"

Instead of saying "I think you're cute," as Patrick had, or some other predictable line that really says nothing at all, he told me I was interesting. That may sound just as glib and pointless, but after Patrick had made me feel about as interesting as a steel-girded doorknob, I was relieved, and what's more, I believed him. He couldn't have cared less if I had read Ulysses or the Hundred Greatest Books Ever Written. He didn't care if I had acceptable bands like Nirvana in my music collection or embarassing ones like Wham! And it wasn't because Jack was a dimwit. He was extremely well-read - his mother was a professor of literature, and he was doing a double major in law and statistics. He was smart. He just didn't make me feel dumb, or uncertain. Ever.

Jack became my boyfriend. My first boyfriend. He was sweet and generous and romantic... but here's my dirty little secret: It was harder to be with him, in some ways, than it had been to be with Patrick. Being with someone who genuinely likes you poses certain challenges for someone uncomfortable with intimacy. I kept expecting him to see me for what I was and come to his senses. I kept expecting my own insecurities to rise up and ruin everything. I was quick to self-depricate and to urge him to do things without me, but he persisted and, slowly, I grew comfortable with him.

Comfortable was foreign, but good.


"College Girl" a novel. By Patricia Weitz. Riverhead Books, published by the Penguin Group: New York, 2008.