Student Reflection: Margaret Rieckman

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05/18/2022 Added

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Senior Margaret Rieckman (English, anthropology) shared her experience at the college's Celebration of Excellence.

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[00:00:03.703]Good evening, everyone.
[00:00:05.338]I'm really happy to be here.
[00:00:07.040]It's kind of wild to think that the last time I was at the ceremony
[00:00:10.677]was as a freshman, and I remember the reading off of theses and sitting next
[00:00:14.781]to my roommate at the time and thinking, I am I going to do that someday?
[00:00:19.085]And now we're here four years later.
[00:00:22.188]So the last line in my dedication of my honors College of Arts and Sciences
[00:00:27.060]thesis reads Thank you to Willa Cather for leaving Nebraska
[00:00:30.997]but never abandoning it.
[00:00:32.732]The 58 page paper is enveloped by my multidisciplinary
[00:00:36.236]humanities education as an English and anthropology major.
[00:00:40.607]My experience studying abroad in Thessaloniki, Greece, for five months,
[00:00:43.676]where I wrote an 82,000 word blog that became my thesis.
[00:00:47.380]My work at the UNL Writing Center, which introduced me to the idea
[00:00:50.784]that dialog and cultural exchange are at the crux of learning.
[00:00:54.854]And my academic affair
[00:00:56.222]with the now dead American writer and cultural critic Willa Cather.
[00:01:00.193]I imagine that most people in this room have heard of Cather,
[00:01:02.796]or at least are vaguely familiar with her 20th century literary works.
[00:01:06.599]Like Oh Pioneers or My Antonia.
[00:01:09.135]I'm surprised to not hear groans at that, because, I mean, Nebraskans and
[00:01:12.639]Midwesterners are often forced to read her in high school and often don't enjoy it,
[00:01:16.976]which is unfortunate.
[00:01:18.278]But those novels and some of her others revolve
[00:01:21.147]around themes of kinship, identity and home.
[00:01:24.284]As I've gotten to know Cather through the legacy
[00:01:26.252]she left behind in my work as an undergraduate researcher,
[00:01:29.389]humanities intern and reader, I found pieces of myself
[00:01:33.259]and words she wrote in books, short stories and letters.
[00:01:36.396]Like Cather, I've been at odds for most of my life regarding where I'm from.
[00:01:40.166]In her case, she was born in Virginia, but lived in Red Cloud, Nebraska
[00:01:43.203]during her formative years. Whatever that means,
[00:01:46.873]she graduated from this very university in 1895.
[00:01:50.176]Why they named a capitalist dining hall after her, I'll never know.
[00:01:55.482]Because of Cather's contradictions
[00:01:57.317]of loving Nebraska, but wanting to get as far away from it as possible.
[00:02:01.387]Loving to travel, but also loving to stay home.
[00:02:04.357]Loving small towns and loving cities, etc.
[00:02:07.393]I began to reject categories and embrace complexities.
[00:02:11.064]I literally tattooed the word glykópikros, which means bittersweet
[00:02:14.567]in Greek, on my rib cage,
[00:02:16.102]in a sketchy studio in Thessaloniki, and still carry it around like a mantra.
[00:02:20.340]A reminder every time I breathe and my lungs expand behind bones and Dr.
[00:02:24.644]Perdikaris can correct me on my Greek later, as I'm sure I'm saying
[00:02:28.081]Thessaloniki and glykópikros wrong.
[00:02:31.050]An experience and identity, a feeling of home and happiness cannot
[00:02:34.988]and should not be restricted to one word, one label or one place.
[00:02:39.492]My humanities education at UNL within the College of Arts
[00:02:42.362]and Sciences is no exception.
[00:02:44.264]It is a representation of all of the connections I have made,
[00:02:47.734]never constricting myself
[00:02:49.068]within limits of who and what to love and give my time to.
[00:02:52.372]I have never been good at decisions.
[00:02:54.140]People who know me know that the overwhelming ness of making up my mind.
[00:02:59.112]But staying in Nebraska, my undergraduate career was one of the best to date.
[00:03:03.816]UNL has allowed me to learn in Nebraska
[00:03:06.519]and be unafraid and capable of leaving it if I so do wish, which I kind of do.
[00:03:12.959]I'm hoping to pursue more opportunities abroad in the next three or four years
[00:03:17.096]before obtaining a masters in multicultural and global education.
[00:03:20.633]God knows where, and I'm sure I will be saying then,
[00:03:23.436]as I do now, that beginnings and ends alike are bittersweet growth.
[00:03:28.441]And that's why Cather and I have so much in common.
[00:03:31.311]And that's why I think she would also like honey lavender lattes,
[00:03:34.314]which I was shaking from while writing this.
[00:03:37.717]But I want to say thank you to everyone
[00:03:39.786]I know and I know I'm not going to possibly be able to name everyone.
[00:03:43.189]So thank you for listening.

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Student Reflection: Margaret Rieckman

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