Becoming an Aunt
Author: Caitlin Dressel
Personal Experience – Caitlin Dressel
On January 18th, 2019, I became an Aunt to a baby boy. My sister’s pregnancy was unexpected. For many months before my nephew’s birth, everyone in my family was scared. I was nervous about the baby’s future because prior to his existence, I was worried about my sister’s. But then he arrived. I held him for as long as I could until my younger sister got her turn. He was so delicate and so innocent. As soon as I smelled his new-born smell and looked at his tiny toes, I knew that as long as we had him, everything would be ok. Because all babies bring love into the world; something no one in my family realized we needed so badly. For the past three and a half years, I have watched my baby nephew grow up. He has outgrown my arms, but I still manage to hold him when he cries or tickle him when he isn’t looking. When I left for college, my heart ached for him, it has never stopped. On April 9th, 2021, another baby boy arrived, his brother. I am now the aunt to the happiest boys in the world and my experience being one has shaped my entire identity. I’ve learned how strong love is, how love can cure many many things.
Key words: worried, confused, surprised, in-love, gentle, playful, imagination, sacrifice, laughter, growth
Proteus Blog Post
- Proteus touches upon various topics throughout its hour long duration. The film highlights the life of Haekel and shares an assortment of interesting facts about him. An aspect of his personal life that fascinated me was him feeling torn by science and his family’s spiritual beliefs. He was raised as a Christian, but always felt conflicted by the world of spirit and the world of matter. This sort of philosophical issue is one I have struggled with as well. I appreciate what I can see more than what I can feel, and so I empathize with the inner conflict that Haeckel faced as a young man. Haeckel’s obsession with scientific matter perfectly aligned with his life long work with radiolarians, however, and inevitably led to him prioritize science over all else. Radiolarians are creatures that are found at the bottom of the sea and are astonishingly over 500 million years old. When Haekel began studying these organisms, he quickly viewed them as an artistic masterpieces. Their intricacy and complexity revealed the relationship between art and science – something he became so passionate about that at certain points in his life, art became his first priority. The film urges its viewers to consider how art and science coincide. After viewing Proteus, I wonder that since art takes form in nature, and nature is science, then is science considered art? For me, it certainly is. In the classroom, the conceptual implication of creating radiolarians is to change our perspective on how we view the smallest forms of life. If we can appreciate the art in microscopic creatures, we learn to view the world with a newfound lens – a lens that identifies beauty in even the tiniest complexities around us. The film is certainly thought provoking, as I now ask myself, what micro-organisms are there floating around me as I write that would be just as astonishing as radiolarians if discovered?