Excerpts from an Educator: Have you ever felt like a baby?

Last weekend, my roommate (Kim) and I went to Niagara Falls for the Crossing Borders conference! This conference focused on Canada and the United States (not "America," I learned, because we are both technically America) and their similarities and differences.

Since Kim and I are both Secondary English Education majors, we wanted to pick something along the lines of literature for our presentation. However, we thought it was kind of lame to pick two novels, one from the US and one from Canada, and compare and contrast them (plus, that would take a long time and we've been really busy lately). So, while I was in the shower a few weeks ago, I had the brilliant idea of taking two Native American legends, one from the US and one from Canada, and comparing and contrasting them in relation to the tribe's history and culture and such. Legends are the basis of literature, and the indigenous peoples are the basis of our countries, so it seemed fitting.

Our presentation turned out pretty well and I was proud of our work. We confidently packed our bags and headed to Niagara Falls, arriving at the reception site forty-five minutes late due to heavy traffic in Buffalo.

Once we got there, we mingled with some of our fellow presenters, and we soon realized that we were the only freshmen there. More specifically, we were the only non-senior/non-graduate level/non-Canadian-Studies-degree-holding presenters! We were intimidated and went back to our hotel room to tweak our presentation a tad.

The next day went without a hitch. We watched fantastic presentations on everything, from the eutrophication of Lake Erie to the police force on the Haudenosaunee reservation! Kim and I did our presentation and we received a lot of compliments. It was a unique experience, and now that I have one conference under my belt, I'm excited to do more in the future. Overall, the conference went well, even though we were the only youngsters presenting.

And then we switched to tourist mode! I got to see the falls for the first time!! It was so much fun, and I am glad I had the opportunity to take this trip.