Posts by: iquillen

Where the Heart Is

There is a saying that home is where the heart is. When I first came to BU, I wanted to create a new space that I could call home. Perhaps I could have gone further away from Brookline, the town near Boston where I grew up, to accomplish this. But when I came to Marsh […]

Vulnerability in Disharmony

I don’t often mention to people I meet that I work at Marsh Chapel. One reason for this is the question that people will invariably ask me afterward: “Are you religious?” Or, an even trickier one: “Do you believe in God?” As much as I would like to answer these two questions, the truth is I haven’t […]

The Call to Love

Devin, Nick, Denise, and Tom delivered a sermon during today’s Maundy Thursday service! As I listened to them meditate on what it meant for Jesus to wash his disciples’ feet and how to love unconditionally, I was reminded of all the work that each of the Marsh Associates put into writing it, as well as the […]

Take what you need, and give what you can

This afternoon I passed by a flyer on my way to lab. Nothing surprising about that–I pass flyers regularly during my everyday travels through dorms, across hallways, and between buildings. Something about this one caught my attention, though. It had only one sentence printed on it: “Take what you need, and give what you can.” At […]

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

The slides were beginning to blur and lose focus as I looked at them. Although I was listening, my professor’s voice seemed more distant than usual. And the light falling onto the projector screen, normally only a minor nuisance, was becoming incredibly distracting. Maybe it was because I was still recovering from jag lag. Gaining […]

Part III-Epilogue

I’ve just talked about the same story through the lens of three different social factors: age, gender, and race. Did I do each of these factors justice? With the limited time and writing I gave to each, I’d say no–there’s much more to be explored in each of them. But one thing I didn’t really […]

Part II-Trust

Age This one is perhaps the most straightforward to begin with. My two friends and I are all in our early twenties, either college-aged or just recently graduated. The man who approached us seemed older–how old is rather difficult for me to say. But looking back, it does strike me as noteworthy that of all […]

Part I-Prologue: A cold afternoon

Two friends and I were sitting at a cafe near Northeastern for lunch. Two of us had just left an open house for Northeaster’s graduate speech-language pathology program, while the third was a current student in the program. When one of them left to pick up his order, a man approached the two of us at our […]

Yawning, Empathy, and Understanding

It all started in endocrinology class a few weeks ago. My professor was talking about behavior that’s influenced by hormones during development and around puberty. One of the behaviors he mentioned was yawning in rhesus monkeys. Then, to demonstrate, he yawned. It took me a split-second to understand what he was doing. But by then […]

To Err and to Forgive

I’ve known for a long time that the weather in New England can be unpredictable. At times tempestuous, at times calm, but always changing. Given the tumultuous past few weeks in my own life, my reflection for this week might reflect today’s weather–unexpected, and at times a little chaotic. I ask you to bear with […]