Liz Lyon

Major:	Economics; Chinese minor
Hometown:	Hillsdale, New Jersey
Favorites:	Cliff jumping at Bristol Falls; throwing tea parties
One thing I am:	A spoken-word poet

I’m a New York Jew, whisked immediately after my birth to the white suburbs of northern New Jersey. I grew up in the magical suburban bubble, where racism is a thing of the past and classism isn’t even a word—even though almost everyone is white and upper-middle class. While at Middlebury, I have had the honor of being with friends and classmates from different backgrounds—be it the ’hood in Boston, a Burmese refugee camp, a sugaring shack in northeastern Vermont, or, yes, the malls of New Jersey. Together, we all have the opportunity to learn the basic lesson, over and over again: that no one knows the one answer, but together we can start working towards understanding a few of the questions.

Growing up with artist brothers quite a bit older than I am (as old as uncles) helped me mature early and taught me to value the struggle to live beautifully and purposefully, to live for the greater community of humanity.

Outside of Middlebury, I’ve come to realize that we must never judge a person’s soul by their current situation. Almost everything in life, from getting into college to ending up on death row, comes down to luck. When we judge our brothers and sisters by the stream of luck that put them where they are today, instead of their inner spark, we cash in our share of collective humanity.