Sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn’t it? Actually, that was my night–I went out to dinner with a few friends from grad school tonight after class, and we had a BLAST. It was so fun–one girl is a Muslim from Pakistan (but has lived in the US most of her life). Another girl is a Jewish Chilean who has just been in the US for a year. And then there was a girl from Keller… and then me. The blue-eyed blonde girl with freckles from Texas (sometimes don’t you wish you were deliciously exotic? I do!).

I love getting to know people who are nothing like me, but everything like me. I love hearing their stories, breaking down stereotypes and learning what makes them tick. We talked about boys, school, religion, Middle Eastern conflicts, movies, our families, the election… all the stuff normal classmates talk about. And we did it all while eating $3 sushi at a little hole-in-the-wall close to campus.

Experiences like that form some of the good memories that I’ll take away from my grad school experience. It dulls the pain of all of those hours of homework, the social activities I’m forced to sacrifice, and the evenings spent in a classroom with no windows. Because occasionally I get to make a new friend, somebody I would normally never get to know under any other circumstances.

In fact, we’re already planning our next outing… a make-over party! One of the girls is a local television reporter who is a make-up pro… so she’s providing the rest of us with a Sephora make-up tutorial. We may be grown-ups, but we’re never too old to play dress-up. It’s fun to be a girl, even if I’m not deliciously exotic!