Baking pies

One of the first things that I learned about RA, after her love of God and her international student status, is her love of pies. In particular, apple pie; and it became the thing that I and others would bring or make to draw her out to events.

As she stepped deeper into leadership, both with our community and as an RA, I knew one way to spend time with her would be to teach her my pie-making ways.

We started in the fall by making apple pie.

Then we moved on to making pumpkin pie. We baked the pies in her dorm room, set off the fire alarm too many times to count, and filled the hallway with smoke. And what of the pies? To give her credit, I admit pumpkin pies look pretty gross before you bake them, and this face really says it all.

But after all the drama we spent some time discussing RA’s wall collage that depicted how beauty is depicted in the media, and how diversity in terms race, ethnicity, and physical imperfections is minimal; and how that affects us as women of colour.

Before we knew it, the pies were done, and though they looked gross going in, they tasted delicious coming out of the oven. But don’t just take my word for it.