Salt and a Sit-In

Hello! I’m a little behind with reporting on my birthday list. Last month, I went to a flotation therapy center called Bodymind Float Center in Rochester, New York. However, I didn’t float in a tank; I chose the more economical option of salt therapy.

A friend of mine was game as well, so we sat in the salt room for an hour and caught up on each other’s lives while we inhaled micro-particles of salt. We couldn’t feel anything in the air, but we could taste the salt on our tongues as we gabbed away. The room was Spartan; there were two lounge chairs, a table, and two baskets of huge chunks of salt on the floor. Somehow the salt was getting ground behind the scenes and coming out of a vent in the wall.

This type of therapy is supposed to be good for people with respiratory problems. Luckily, I don’t have those types of problems. But by the end of the session, I had blown my nose a few times! It was a unique experience.

Last week, I had another unique experience. I participated unwittingly in a sit-in at the college where I work. And I was not on the protesters’ side!

Long story short, I’m a staff member but was invited to attend a big faculty meeting. A few hundred students dressed in black decided to take over said meeting. They marched right in, chanting about racial discrimination and holding signs. Then they sat down, surrounding the faculty in their seats, and student after student spoke about his or her experiences of discrimination and cultural insensitivity at the college. They spoke for almost two hours.

Their main demand was to make participation in cultural competency courses mandatory for all faculty. From the stories they told, the faculty need it. It was a peaceful protest and most of the faculty agreed with what the students had to say.

It was a strange feeling to be on the “oppressor’s” side, even though I was really just a guest. It was a powerful experience, and I truly hope that my employer takes action.

So now I have 12 things left to do in fewer than four weeks! It’s on, baby.