"No one from my town is ever this generous solely to be generous. And it's awesome that generosity is such a normal thing here."

"We're from Santa Fe, New Mexico. He got the puck during the game!"
                    As for the amazing purple?
"It's. Just. Hair."

                 "If there is one thing you think Notre Dame needs to work on, what would it be?"

"Wow, I've never actually thought about that question before. Huh. That's a hard one."

                 "That's a good sign if you've never considered that before!"

"How about this: I'll get back to you after the Stanford game is over."

"The community of international students from China is very intimate. We are all going through the same struggles at the same time. We come together to talk about our problems and solve them together. Most of the time, the advice of the international upperclassmen is more useful to me than upperclassmen from the US. They've gone through what I am."
              "If you could give one piece of advice to a potential international student, what would you say?"
"Something I was told before I left: 'Be prepared to be unprepared.'"

(He explained to me an entire paper about cellular networks and distribution of devices. It was fascinating but there is no way I could replicate his explanation.)

"These are written to hopefully influence and advise companies with our research."
             "Will these papers go to companies, then?"
"No. Not exactly. It's difficult for students to get involved with companies because big companies do not want papers and research for them to be published. Graduate students need a background of publication to get a job. So it is easier if the funding comes from the National Science Foundation, since there are no intellectual property issues in that case. At this stage, it's strictly academic."

                       "What's your major?"
"Studio design and finance." (long and exasperated sigh) "...I want to work."
                       "Can you show me some of your art?"
"This piece is about altered reality. I have ADD; I know how it feels to take medicine and feel sort of like a science experiment. But it's not just about medication. We drink coffee, drink beer. It all goes into our brains."

"I'm just leaving Morrissey. I advise students with research for their papers and projects."
           "Were there many people there?"
"Only a few, but this is just my third time. I'm hoping that as there are more papers being written closer to finals, more people will want to come to get help. I've been a librarian here for thirteen years."
           By this point, her dog was eager to sniff every inch of snow on South Quad.
"This is Ellie. She's very photogenic."

"My sister works at an animal shelter. She originally had a Boston Terrier and Chihuahua mix set up for me. It was a girl, and she was scared to death of men. She would not sit on my lap. She'd jump off every time. But Edwin was there, too, and he kept jumping onto my lap and sitting there. And I kept saying, 'No, I'm not taking you with me.' And when I got home, I thought about it, and i said, it just makes the most sense for me to take Edwin. He chose me."

                "Which parent are you most like?"
"My mom."
                "What are you happy you inherited from her, and what are you a little iffy about?"
"I'm proud to have her kindness. And her big heart. As for the other one...discipline towards my kids."
               "Too little or too much?"
"Too much."

"The hardest part about being a priest is the amount of availability you need to have open for everyone. It's also very difficult to see the amount of suffering in so many hearts, and to heal that. That's a glorious part, yes, but also very difficult."

"There are seven or so of us who all go to Notre Dame events together. I met these two ladies through a friend of a friend. We were in a support group together after both our husbands died, and she introduced me to this group of ladies who goes out together."

"We check the newspaper every day to see what events are going on."

"We go to the basketball and the volleyball games, too."

          "Do you go out to eat together afterwards?"

"Of course! What else do ladies do?"

"We're volunteers. We don't get paid, but the students do."
"We get to watch the performances--those are well worth it."
"You have to get on the computer at 10:00 on the 10th of every month to grab your shifts, because everyone else is on then, too."
                 "It sounds like getting football tickets!"
"It is! We're kind of like a club."

Seen by LaFun.

"I'm here at Prism because people need an LGBTQ community to feel comfortable in. I'm the only gay guy in my section. I didn't come out until second semester of my sophomore year. It really tore me up. My grades weren't terrible, but they weren't...they weren't where they should be. There's something that's really stuck with me: 'Coming out isn't like coming out of a closet; it's like coming out of a revolving door again and again and again.'"

After he left, his friend said, "I've never seen him tell a story like that."

"I've been an usher for ten years and I love it. I'm sitting out here in the cold, and I love it. It's too bad my partner isn't here right now--he's from Madison, Wisconsin. He drives in every game day. We have ushers from 22 different states. I know one who drives in from Ohio on game days. Did you know all the ushers in the stadium are volunteers?"
            "What's the best part about being an usher?"
"Meeting people. You meet people from all around the world. And everyone--from both teams--is so nice."

"I didn't read for fun until fifth grade. My aunt bribed me to read the Harry Potter books with a cake and a t-shirt. I got them on audiobook. Then I found I really liked them, and now I read all the time. Not always heavy stuff, though. I have a Sylvia Day book with me. I read it on public transportation. ...yeah. Sometimes I'm a little wary about the cover. Okay, let's be honest. It's tripe. But it's good tripe. Reading is reading."

"My sister and I were the first of our family to go to college. It's rare for people from where I'm from to go out of state for education. The job opportunities in-state as well as in-state tuition are hard to pass by. It’s weird, because here it’s just so normal to go to college out of state. But it’s not like that back home. To my sister and me, college was always a given. My parents made that known. They recognized the importance of an education."
                  “What about drum captain? Did you want to be drum captain when you were a freshman?”
"No! I actually didn’t think about it until second semester of my junior year. They sent out the drum captain form, and I looked at it and thought, Do I really want to do this? But the more I thought of it, the more I realized: I had to be drum captain.”

"One time, a young lady came in here. She was baking a cake in the little kitchenette in her dorm. She came in and said, 'Do you have three eggs?' And I said, 'I know they have them back in the kitchen, but I think it's only in the mornings.' But she asked if she could go back there and ask. I said sure, because who am I to tell her what the kitchen does. She went back there...and guess what? They gave her three eggs. It's a good feeling, to work in a place where they'll do a dumb thing like that for you--just give you three little eggs."

"You know me pretty well...Don't put in any slander about me."
             "I could say you were going to rob a bank."
"One time, I did say that I was going to hit my friend with my car if she ever jaywalked. She and I made up a lot of stories together. We were in middle school, and we had nothing better to do when we stood outside in the cold for recess. Catholic school. Made you go outside for recess. So we made up stories together: we said she was an illegal Polish immigrant, and lived in an alley behind my house in a box. And stole cable."
             "Now I see why you're pursuing a major in creative writing."
"My mom always told me I needed to write. But I said she was biased. It wasn't until my junior year when a teacher said, 'You should write.' And I said, okay."

           "If there is one thing you think Notre Dame could do better, what would it be?"
"This is gonna sound kind of bad."
           "Go for it."
"I think sometimes the focus on faith limits its community. For example, the single-sex dorms. It limits the social activities and classes to being all about meeting the opposite sex, and it shouldn't be that way. I think that's a remnant of the religious tradition that should be making its way out."

"I'm a very visual person. I learn better when I'm drawing what we're learning about."
           "So that's King Lear?"
"Yeah. I'm in graphic design--they call it 'art with work gloves.'"