Center of the Circle - 1/14/10

I am happy to report that I survived yet another holiday drill session performed annually by my extended family. How are your grades? Who are you dating? Have you come to your senses about voting liberal? What are you going to do with an English and Religion degree anyway?

After four years, I have all but patented a technique for shirking the lengthy, detailed responses that they desire. Good. Still Dale.

(None of my family members can remember that my roommate is a girl.) Just mailed the check to ACORN today. I plan on sleeping in Union Square next year. Keep it short and sarcastic. They seem to respond well to that.

My favorite question, though, has to be: So what is this J-term thing again? This year, the answer is less difficult because I am no longer the only Merriman with a Winter Term.

My dad, a first-year professor at Wofford College, will be spending his first J-Term in China. (Apparently, they don’t need “budget cuts” down south, not that I am bitter … )

Still, I provided the typical Middlebury response: “J-Term is an opportunity to try something new, to become a better snowboarder and to satisfy the body’s required alcohol quotient in order to survive the harsh Vermont winter.”

This year, though, I think that I will add an additional J-Term resolution to my list.

My friend at Elon University is taking a more practical route with a Winter Term class entitled “Cash and Check.” Although I had to laugh at the concept of learning how to balance a checkbook as a college senior, her course inspired me to strive for something more applicable. It’s not that my independent study about productions of The Merchant of Venice during the Holocaust won’t help me manage my post-college life … OK, maybe it is.

Thus, my Winter Term resolution is to become more domestic. I can sense my mother rolling her eyes all the way from South Carolina, but by the end of the month, I resolve to be able to make more than eggs, pasta, cookies, mixed drinks and anything grilled, my small yet perfected current repertoire.

Don’t worry. I’m not going all “Julie and Julia” on this column, but I do plan on experimenting with recipes, throwing a dinner party or two and generally putting my newly-acquired Atwater suite to good use.

What is most important about this goal is not that I come out of this month a gourmet chef, but rather that I feel like I have accomplished something for myself. I am going to ignore the fact that I have just shared this personal endeavor with the entire readership of The Campus and keep this challenge just for me. I already can anticipate the comments from my suitemates about “the H.Kay way,” my slightly messy and unconventional approach to, well, everything.

And I am sure I will be getting a call from my grandmother who once told me,

“Good thing your mom became such a good baker so that she could keep your dad around.”

Still, despite the slack I anticipate from friends and family, I remain confident that I, too, can perfect a homemade chocolate sauce in the confines of a college kitchen.

So, in addition to whatever “challenges” your friends suggest and whatever educational advancements your relatives insist you take on, I encourage you to do something for yourself, something new, in the spirit of J-Term. And if you fail to reach your goal and need some consolation, you can find me in my kitchen. I promise to have a burnt brownie waiting for you.