Clay

The mind, malleable as clay, is molded by the learning environment.

My four years at Carleton, has been that learning environment. Then, my mind has been stretched to conceptualize abstractions, hardened to give weight to arguments I was making. It also took the form I never imagined it would, when I embarked on the challenge of combing the tools of anthropology and political science for my senior thesis.

Now, three months after graduation, I face yet another challenge of softening the hardened clay once again so it can fit into the mold required for my work at TRP, which requires understanding a lot of country-level data, and statistics. This kind of thinking is no doubt very important, should one aspire to understand the vast political and economic landscape of the region or the world. But I can't help but stop wondering if, in my quest to see this 'bigger picture,' I might loose the small, and fine details (social dynamics, cultures, psychologies) I have worked so hard to focus on at Carleton.

Certainly, depth and breath are not mutually exclusive and one does not have to trade the breadth of knowledge for depth. However, it is possible that skills we don't use regularly will be weathered and dulled eventually; that a clay left to air will loose its malleability.

My challenge now, apart from learning to shift the thinking framework to a broader one, will be to find out ways in which I can (secure) the details of the pictures, to remember the shape of my molded clay at Carleton, so that I can retain the shape of both forms and remain flexible.