Madeline

Katie D.

August 22, 2010 - 10:49 PM

In less than six hours I will be in the Eugene airport, bidding a temporary farewell to one of my best friends as she heads off for a four-month study abroad in Northern Ireland.

Madeline and I have been friends for the last year. We were classmates in Inside-Out last year, earning us the unlikely term "old prison buddies." Since then, we have not only become great friends, but partners on a variety of projects. We worked together when Sister Helen Prejean came to campus last year. We wrote newspaper articles and project proposals. She helped me through the emotional roller coaster of my thesis. We were partners in editing the Turned Inside-Out magazine. We worked together on the Serbu Inside-Out book club. We've been to concerts, academic events, camping trips, fund raisers, and a selection of Eugene's best restaurants together.

She's all I could ask in a close friend, a working partner, and a confidant.

This will be her senior year at the University of Oregon. She's spending fall term in Northern Ireland, working on research and internships relating to the troubles there over the last few decades. This involves helping individuals fleeing conflict (or actual threats) in the Protestant/Catholic divided neighborhoods. She'll also be working with youth, to help allow future generations of the community to find common ground rather than learning the divisions of the present.

As always, I am excited and inspired to hear about the study abroad options my friends choose. It seems like an incredibly opportunity to me. She'll learn about conflict resolution and divided communities by being present in one of the most interesting ongoing ethnic conflicts in this century. I imagine the places she'll go and the experiences she'll have. This is travel at its best: the ability to both explore a new country and to experience things beyond the range of tourism and outside of the average experience of locals. I can't wait to hear the stories, see the pictures, read the newspaper clippings she's promised to send. We'll have skype dates, lengthy emails, and possibly the occasional text message.

Still, I'll miss my friend. I've seen her almost every day in 2010. Plus texts and phone calls. She's part of every bit of my life, either as a central participant or as a constant and compassionate listener. I can't even imagine my prison work continuing without her, since she's been such a central part in the leadership as well as in working through the emotional parts of the experience.

So I'll be going to the airport at 4:45 am on my first day of grad school classes to see her off. I've written her a letter to take on the plane. I'm remembering my own departure for study abroad, and imagining my future adventures. She's in this moment right now, starting some new fabulous part of her life.

I sent her with my favorite quote of all time: "Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" --Mary Oliver

Obviously, Madeline is living her life as wild and precious.