Winter comes and goes
I can feel the cold as the little sensation which remains in my fingers and toes disappears, causing me to rush across the rock-hard ground faster than ever before
I can smell the cold as the crisp, blistering winds which make the earth shiver, give my nose a rosy hue
I can hear the cold as the mixture of freshly fallen snow and salt crystals continually crunch under the soles of my boots
I can taste the cold as the frigid, yet glistening snowflakes tenderly float into my mouth and numb all ten thousand taste buds
I can see the cold as the frostbitten trees tower above a frozen sea of colorful hats and scarves
In a moment, winter has come
I can feel the warmth as the sun shines on my pale skin and I walk a little slower to relish in the beauty
I can smell the warmth as the pattering drops of rain refresh the earth, and a gentle breeze blows across my face
I can hear the warmth as birds chirp in the distance and a chiming bell calls people outside, reviving a recently lifeless earth
I can taste the warmth as a flowering sweetness in the air is joined by a single, salty drop of sweat on my forehead
I can see the warmth as the grass is uncovered and piles of snow dwindle to nothing
In a moment, winter has gone
In a moment, winter will return
By: Alex Budzynski | Staff Writer
Get to Know Levere Hearn
The human experience is equally as complex as the idiosyncrasies that inhabit the implications of every move we make. We are born into the world with many titles written on our heart, some will later be written by someone else and if we’re lucky, at least one will be entirely ours for the claiming. Junior Levere Hearn was born with “boy” on his heart, and “girl” on his body. He is now rewriting the narrative woven into his skin with a pen in one hand and hormone therapy in the other. Hearn is transgender. Hearn is a Xavier Musketeer.
Although his transgender identity is dear to his heart, Hearn wants others to know that “there’s so much more to me than just being trans, even though being trans is really important to me. And there’s still a lot more of my book that still needs to be written — so many more chapters that I still need to decide on. Being trans is such a small segment of that if you look at the whole book.”
Cura Personalis means caring for the whole person, not just the details that are easy or obvious to care for. At Xavier, we attempt to foster relationships that dive deeper.
Hearn explained that “one person can embody several different discourses,” elaborating that he is “also a student, and a teacher, and an artist and author.”
He is a junior middle childhood education major who concentrates on English and Social Studies. You can find him writing his latest novel, telling your fortune with tarot cards or you can talk to him in English, French, Korean, ASL and soon, Chinese Mandarin. Oh, and he was born in Russia.
Despite the breadth of his diverse experiences, Hearn feels his trans story is still one worth telling. He started hormone replacement therapy last summer. “The pharmacy had given me some trouble about getting my prescription, but once I got it, it was like holding the holy grail in my hands. I just started crying like, ‘This is it. I’m doing it.”
Upon returning to campus for the first time since starting hormone therapy, Hearn said he encountered nothing but support from friends and teammates.
“I had told my immediate friend circle about it, and the Xavier gymnastics team and everyone was really supportive. I was kind of shocked. If people weren’t supportive, then they didn’t vocalize it … I appreciated that.”
After coming out to his team, there wasn’t a single flinch. Despite now being the only male member of the gymnastics team, he has never been dead-named, misgendered or felt judged. “I thought I was going to have to drop out of the sport and find a new friend circle, … but everybody has been really great about it.”
Hearn asserted that his life positively impacts his outlook on his academic field, education: “Being trans isn’t my only hard experience I’ve gone through. All of my past experiences and this current one I’m going through will help me to relate to kids more and be more sensitive to children who might be going through the same thing as me or might be going through another struggle… I’ll be able to let kids know that it’s OK to be who you are and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it.”
There have still been times when Hearn questioned whether or not Xavier felt like home for all of who he is. He feels ignorance is the cause of any harm he has experienced at Xavier. Even though he has not been the target of major bias incidents, he has experienced microaggressions. “It’s just sad, I guess. I’m not angry. Just upset because I know we can do so much better.”
However, overall, while he feels Xavier would benefit from further sensitivity training, he shared that “people at Xavier, faculty and students included, have been asking me what my preferred name and pronouns are, which is really great.
“My experiences, they haven’t been easy, but I’d take this before anything else.”
By: Brittany Wells | Staff Writer
Horoscopes
Aries: “The food in Gallagher isn’t that expensive,” you tell yourself now, but if you’re not careful about how frequently you go, you’ll be fresh out of dining dollars before spring break.
Taurus: Now that you’ve had the time to settle into classes and whatnot, now’s a great time to set some goals. Just make sure they’re not unreachable—like “get a dog” if you live in a dorm.
Gemini: This week’s got potential for you, but it’s up to you to use it. Do you lie in bed and stare into the ceiling all day, or do you go out and do something fun, like get bubble tea?
Cancer: You’re the one person out of all your friends who doesn’t really care about the cold—like that guy who was dressed up as Elsa and pushed a police truck out of the snow.
Leo: You may typically like to fly solo, but be wary of ending up in big group projects or having to deal with partners this week. A good way to break the ice is to talk about the Feature’s page.
Virgo: If your ordinary alarm clock isn’t cutting it, consider a human alarm clock instead. Assuming it is convenient for them to be awake, they will happily dump water over your face.
Libra: Oh yeah, Valentine’s Day is coming up. You know what that means: the heckin’ cheap candy you can get after the holiday because of sales.
Scorpio: This is really the kind of week where you just want to shut yourself in your room and hibernate. Make sure it doesn’t take over your obligations, but otherwise embrace it.
Sagittarius: You might see yourself firing off like an arrow this week into the social world, which is great…just don’t be the reason someone took an arrow to the knee.
Capricorn: You may have to keep a close eye on your habits this week. Sure you learned that you can 3D print a fidget spinner in the Makerspace, but that doesn’t mean you should.
Aquarius: Because of the Lunar New Year, there are a lot of “new”s likely to come your way. Don’t judge them: new fish, new clothes, new broken bone because you tripped on nothing…
Pisces: The polar vortex is over. You have survived. Though your puffy coats have been invaluable assets during the wartime, keeping them will only remind you of the pain.
This post was assembled by Features Editor Soondos Mulla-Ossman.