Posts by: Nickholas Rodriguez

Cyclical Anxieties and Trust

The only thing I have perfect access to is my own mind, and what I know about the world is based on my own perceived experiences. While I love talking about how we gain knowledge, and I often think about what real things are – which, in my opinion, is anything we can be wrong […]

Unrelenting Grace for an Unrelenting Failure

I walked out the side door of Marsh Chapel. The air outside was refreshing. I felt my head running at hundreds of miles per hour, except this time it was not the result of a fear or anxiety. It was not guilt or pain or hurt. It was the sermon I heard today, and the […]

Experiments in Time

It is right now the end of one week, and the beginning of another week. I sat in the pews and looked up at the Mandala-like stained glass window of Christ for a long moment that felt just a little too brief before going downstairs at Marsh Chapel to grab a bagel and sit down, […]

Darkness, Negative Infinity

“Darkness such that haunts my soul. Desperate longing for an absent God The torture and the pain I can’t explain My heart cries.” -the Liturgists These lyrics were sounding through my headphones as I walked through the dining hall Tuesday afternoon. Several years ago, the Liturgists, an experimental art project spearheaded by Michael and Lisa […]

Granos de Mostaza

I was originally about to write a blog post about my dreams and goals. I was going to reflect on what I really truly genuinely wanted to do after college, and whether or not I felt happy in my degree program because that has been pressing on me more and more lately. But, then I […]

Much More Alive

I originally wrote a blog post about my “Vibes” playlists. Roughly 1100 words in, I concluded that I did not want to sum up my year that way. Each playlist was about a different summer Orientation session or week during the summer, or a month of school during the semester. Each five-song playlist contained songs […]

Grieving Heartbreak

This week was very long – and yet, I do not recall doing very much this week. I had one midterm. It took a lot of energy to motivate myself to study for it. It took a lot of energy to sit down and work through the notes and the practice problems. It took a […]

Implosions

This week was full of surprises. I cannot say they were positive surprises. I cannot say that I was happy. I can say that I was surprised. Actually, it was a negative kind of surprise. It felt like an explosion. But it didn’t really feel like an explosion at the same time. It felt like […]

Realizations, Rituals

Last week was a good week. Sure, I might have stressed a little bit too much about the midterms I have this week, I might have been very sick for several days, I might have struggled with some assignments, and it might have been a long week, but at the end of it all it […]

Importance of Community

John Oliver’s most recent topic on the show Last Week Tonight was on opioids, more specifically, the opioid epidemic in our country. You can watch the video on YouTube – be aware that the humor is often adult and the language is also fairly adult. In the segment, John Oliver discusses the recent epidemic of […]