User:Sushisalsasasha

What's up guys it's Sasha! LAN CTYer since 17.2. Possibly known for constantly playing the ukulele and owning too many fandom T-shirts. CTY is the place where I realized the type of person I wanted to be and where I learned to love myself, and also learned about, like, math and stuff. I miss you all, stay safe out there!

LAN HISTORY

17.2 Logic: Principles of Reasoning

18.2 Fiction & Poetry

19.2 Number Theory (joe's hoes wya)

20.2 Topology (rip)

20.2 Duct Tape Dress! (even though we didn't go lol)

I CTY all of you <3

23.1-23.2 RA. I thought Lancaster had seen the last of me when I packed my bags in August but I'm here now rereading my old number theory notes and filled with an immense amount of nostalgia. Forever grateful to the friends I made, the lessons I learned, and the new generation that I've been so lucky to meet as a sort-of-adult.

CTY has made me the person that I am. Truly. At the end of it all, I am so grateful and so very lucky.

Passionfruit

(since there wasn't an actual 20.2 passionfruit, i drove up to F&M on what would have been the last day to give this speech in person, on campus. here's what i said <3)

I started thinking about this speech at 6 in the morning on the last day of Session 2 and 2017. It’s now almost 10:30 on what would have been the night of the last dance, so go figure. I’m gonna try not to talk too much about what we’ve lost this year because then I’ll just end up crying. I want to talk about how much CTY has given me.

CTY was a second choice for me. I auditioned for a four-week drama camp taking place summer 2017, and when I didn’t get in I figured, well, might as well have something to do this summer. I thought CTY would be full of studious, nerdy, antisocial kids and we’d spend three weeks studying and learning. And I thought, ok, sounds fun, ‘cause I’m an antisocial nerd. What I didn’t expect to find was a community. I wore a Heathers the musical T-shirt during my first week and no fewer than four people commented on it (and in fact that was how I made some of my best friends). I went to GLOW and found a thriving queer community that gave me the courage to be the out-and-proud bisexual I am today. I went to a talent show and sang my little ukulele songs every year without fail because CTY is a place of self-expression. CTY is where I learned about logic and writing and number theory, and about friendship and community and self-love. I remember being thirteen and seeing the older kids with their rainbow flags and dyed hair sitting on the couches of the Steinman basement and playing ERS on the quad and knowing all the canon dances. And then all of a sudden I was fifteen and that was me, and I was the person I’d always wanted to become. CTY gave me that. It was the place where reality ceased to exist and nothing was real except losing at Avalon and screaming the lyrics to Mr. Brightside.

To my first friends: Sam, Joanna, Ari, you guys made me who I am and I wish I could write an entire speech for each of you. To the rest of my friends: Charlie, Avery, Maia, Sophia, Sabine, Kristina, all of Joe’s Hoes and Amy’s hall everyone else I can think of and I’m sure there’s more I’m missing because I made so many damn friends here. To every single person I have ever crossed paths with here and everyone I haven’t. Thank you. You guys are my found family and I miss you all.

CTY, there aren’t enough words to thank you for your gifts. For American Pie and Starcrash and illegal sleepovers, for trips to CVS and the Turkey Hill and the farmers market, for wandering the halls of Steinman when we definitely weren’t supposed to (and not being one of the ones who got caught), for slow dancing with my best friend and with a girl I barely knew and falling in love not with them but with everything around me, for the memories that are already fading too fast but I know the spirit will stay with me forever because I’ll always be part of the generation lost in space. For giving me the courage to exist as I am and to grow and change for the better, and for teaching me how wonderful that person is. I like you, I love you, I CTY you. I love CTY, and I love the passionfruit.

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HI EGG - Ari Markov