i liked this event a lot–probably more than most of the other ones i’ve been to thus far (which, to be fair, doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot since i’ve 10/10’d every event i’ve gone to). don’t get me wrong, i think that guest speakers and trips to interesting places at cornell are really rewarding and i’m happy to have done them–i hope to do more–but i’m a big fan of the group discussions. i love that people can come together, respectfully and comfortably, and share their varying insights into something that we all experience in a unique way. i tend to learn more from doing than from listening or reading, so it’s much easier for me to engage with the topic when i’m actually encouraged to engage with the topic.

my group discussed many different types of love, such as familial, romantic, platonic, humanistic (agape) love, and spiritual. we talked about how the nebulous and far-reaching nature of the word can be a detriment to understanding, sharing, and nurturing it. we didn’t spend very long any one of them though, as the discussion progressed naturally and openly. one thing that i thought we could have spent more time on was non-heteronormative love. we didn’t spend very much time at all on the the lgbtq community or how their experiences can be compared and contrasted to those of heterosexuals. additionally, i don’t think we spent enough time addressing what expectations we have for how a person is “supposed” to love. (a man is “supposed” to be strong and independent, etc.) i understand that we had a limited time frame to work within though so i can’t really fault the event very much for these shortcomings. i think the fact i’ve focused on finding criticism of this event shows how much i enjoyed it, though. i was truly impressed with how forthcoming and friendly my fellow scholars were throughout.

i’m giving this event  10 <3s out of 10.