#hendricks chapel

*Kerry serves as an Associate Director in the Office of Student Activities

"I am a child in the scheme

Unaware

Small

Innocent perhaps

I feel the world before I see it

Its energy

Its emotion

Its vibrancy

Its life

My eyes open

Though partially

I am aware

Unconscious though of the web into which I am born

A drop in a turbulent ocean

A pebble on a beach eroded by a violent sea

I am a child

Unencumbered

Impressionable

I long for a warm embrace

I thirst for love

I am hungry

My eyes swell

My heart races

My limbs spasm

I cry

I cry the tears of a thousand lifetimes a thousand times in a single moment

I cry for yesterday

For today

I cry for tomorrow

I cry for my mother

My father

My sisters and brothers

Both blood and race in times past and present

I cry

I wait

I wait to be comforted

I wait to be fed

I wait to be loved

To be taught

To be schooled in the intricacies of the web, the vastness of the sea and land

To be taught in life of life by life

To be taught in life of life by people

People taught in life of life by life and people

And so on

And so on throughout the ages

Family and friends

Teachers and clerics

Bureaucrats and politicians

Reporters and the like

Past becomes present

Present becomes future

Disagreement becomes conflict becomes aggression becomes war

War breeds distrust breeds disagreement breeds conflict breeds aggression breeds war

Past wars become future lessons taught by life and by people

Until I learn to learn

And learn what to unlearn

That I might teach new lessons

That I might pass on new learning

And so on

And so on

And on…

That the generations that follow might understand themselves as the ocean.

Not solely the drop.”

—-

"I learned in Turkey that 9/11 impacted me more than I thought; not only the attack, but the fear propagated against Muslims in the States post 9/11. Even though I cognitively knew that Islam is not the issue, I didn’t have any personal or emotional connections or understandings of the religion, as I do now. Because of this trip, I return to SU with a new understanding and with a new ability to engage students across multiple social identities and faith traditions.”

Cadet nurses march to Hendricks Chapel to celebrate the opening of the new nursing school, Syracuse University, 1945