Brenna Ross::  Class year.
Kristin Durianski & Brenna Ross::  Okay.
Kristin Durianski & Brenna Ross::  You can go ahead whenever you're ready.
Kristin Durianski::  Okay. My name is Kristin Durianski. I currently live in Merrillville, Indiana. I’m a member of Grinnell class of 2001.
Brenna Ross::  Alright. So, I guess just kinda starting at the top, why did you choose to come to Grinnell?
Kristin Durianski::  And that's the fun thing. Actually the financial aid- I was- ended up choosing between Grinnell and Smith in Massachusetts. Now, for anyone who knows me, “You at an all girls school?” I probably would have done better at an all-boys school, but my mom ended up negotiating the financial aid a bit better here.
Kristin Durianski::  I’m originally from Parkridge, Illinois, so I wasn’t- yeah, about five hours away. Far enough away so that I wasn’t that close to home, but still, it was a drive. We had to pack me up every year. The last three years it was basically a kidnapping van. No windows. Tried to get all of my stuff here and my father commented, I think when I left, “You have everything you need for a starter home.” No. No I don’t!
Kristin Durianski::  But, I lived in Norris three out of four years. First two years were not- I didn’t choose to live there. My freshman year, it was- we were, at the time it was one of the biggest classes ever and they were really trying to cram us in. They turned triples into quads, things like that. I was in a double in Norris, and the Norris second crew - there’s actually a lot of us here this weekend, I’m thrilled about that. There were a lot of freshman on the floor, we became pretty close-knit.
Kristin Durianski::  My sophomore year, I had such a horrible room draw number as did my roommate, like “All right. I guess we’re going back to Norris.” She didn’t care where we lived. I- y'know- with lists of rooms and it's like, "Well, I suppose this is acceptable. Back on Norris second east for another year." For my junior year I got, again, such a bad room draw number that I just like, y'know, "I wanna live on my own so let them place me," and got Clark. Actually that’s the room where I’m at this weekend. Which, scares me half to death just, a lot of memories in that room. Then, my senior year again I chose to live in Norris, second floor west, right by the stairs, so I could see everybody coming past.
Kristin Durianski::  I was a bit too social for my own good. My friends are commenting this weekend, “You remember who everybody is,” and I pretty much do. I worked in the Dining Hall all four years, so this is back when Cowles was the dining, y’know, it was the North Campus Dining Hall. And, last two years I was a checker. So, I knew everyone, well, I don’t know if Sheila was here when you were here. But Sheila, I was the othe- like the other Sheila. Yeah, I knew everybody’s names, and people were not very good at remembering their IDs, so yeah, they'd- you tell- y'know, we weren’t supposed to punch in the number but I said, "OK, I’ll punch in your ID number if you let me squirt you with the squirt gun."
Kristin Durianski & Brenna Ross::  So I’d have a squirt gun behind the desk. That didn’t go well. It depended on who was there. Lyle thought it was hilarious; Betty not so much. She was- She's at least here this weekend, I don’t know if she’s here full time.
Kristin Durianski & Brenna Ross::  She's always here.
Kristin Durianski & Brenna Ross::  Yes. Yes, so she didn’t care for it much but that was the way I operated. I would rip you a new one if you came into the Dining Hall after seven o’clock, except for the football players and the other athletes ‘cause I knew they were coming from practice. It’s not their fault. "Why are you coming at ten after seven if- There’s no excuse!" I was a bit crazy about that, but...
Kristin Durianski::  That was probably one of the- when I got my job assignment my first year, I'm like, "Dining services? Oh good God, no." I did not want to be washing dishes, and... but I think it was probably one of the best things I ever did while I was here. Just, especially this weekend just running into all of the staff members that I worked with and, it’s... yeah. That’s probably one of the things I miss the most, and when my parents came for my graduation, y'know, I introduced them to, Mom was like, “Oh, everyone, they all talk so nicely about you.”
Kristin Durianski::  I'm like, "I suppose that’s a good thing," but... Also I was a bit of a partier. I mean it wasn’- I hardly ever missed a class. Only missed class twice in my four years and that was for a theater production that I was doing. But, in particular my senior year I had, basically a free bar and I’d be on alcohol runs to McNally’s, sometimes three times a day with the various, like freshman or other young ‘uns and I guess I’m admitting I broke the law on tape, but statute of limitations now is... it’s long past. I can fight against that.
Kristin Durianski::  But, it was.. It- I liked to bring- I ended up bringing a lot of different people together. Various floormates from years past, and y'know sort of the- I loved the athlete boys. I have no idea why because I’m not an athlete at all, but... And then just people I did theater with. People I worked with. People in my classes, and when- I remember coming back, so probably November of 2001, which was the Fall after I graduated, and, y'know, stayin' with a friend of mine and she said, “Yeah, we have to let you bring your tray up to TBD two minutes ahead because you’ve got to stop and talk to everybody.” Because that's- That was just simply what I- y'know, 'cause I had... always to chat with somebody, which, yeah, sometimes is a good thing and a bad thing.
Kristin Durianski::  But, remembering all the crazy things. I remember the - oh my goodness - my floor, actually Norris Hall. We called them.. gosh it was Amar, Avarin, Mohammed and then the quiet Taha. But, we would- we just referred to them as the Pakis and they loved it. But, usually, y’know I’d be trying to go to sleep. Y'know, they’d be making a ruckus. Y'know, maybe I was an old lady by then so 11:30 or midnight, and just be- Y'know, I would just go- I'd go out there with my squirt like, "Get- Guys!" And Amar would be like, “But senior!”
Kristin Durianski::  But then, seems my next year - when I was gone in law school - I just totally missed stuff like that. I missed the... We had a- That was like one of the first years of Eggs to Order, my senior year. Miss Wanda making my eggs for me. Mmmm, tomatoes and the cheese. It’s crazy the things you remember, but, y'know, I’ve been popping up with all of the various stories about everybody all weekend.
Kristin Durianski::  I used to send out - probably second semester my freshman year on - I would compile the weekend residue. It would... At first it was posted on... We had plans on the VAX, which, y'know... An ancient, antiquated system, and they’re very much like dot matrixes, seemed like. And, you could finger, y'know, somebody. I mean it’s actually not that dissimilar from plans now, but, yeah, so the first couple years it was just y’know posted. Basically the story of the weekend to the extent that you could remember. I mean, it could be as innocuous as me writing a Poli Sci paper half the weekend or trips to Newton to go to Perkins or some big bash.
Kristin Durianski::  Then when things switched over and we got the new email system my junior year, which was webmail, I started sending out as a mass email, which was about, y'know, including y'know, some friends from high school and elsewhere, saying that’s like 200 people, it was some little campus publication almost. I would spend- I'd be sitting there like, Sunday night. Y'know, just, would just stay up. Make sure I get it all out. Like, “Where’s the weekend residue?” And it would get rather- I mean, there could be- once I printed all of them out. I still have a binder full of these. And, two to three- At least two to three pages of story a week and it usually would help people out because people wouldn’t understand- “Oh, well this is how this happened.”
Kristin Durianski::  One time, this was Halloween 2000, and my friend Courtney lived across the hall. Couldn’t figure out how John Beeches’ wallet ended up in her room. He’d been hanging out in my room and then he’d somehow dropped his wallet in the hallway. Our friend Abby brought it into Courtney’s room and left it there so it wouldn’t get- and, the- Courtney couldn’t figure out, but then she read the Residue. “Oh, well that all makes sense now.” Some great... y'know, some great quotes to the extent that I could remember it. And but, sometimes, “Wait, I missed something big here.”
Kristin Durianski::  Usually not, but... What I think I'll remember most is the community. A lot of it we- seeing a lot of people, yesterday in particular, we almost fell back into our patterns of just, teasing each other about the same old things and I ca- Just totally missed that. Grinnell is a place, at least- I went to Valparaiso for law school, and when I went there it was such a culture shock for me. This is a place where you can let your freak flag fly. Valparaiso, again, it’s a very different, much more conservative school.
Kristin Durianski::  It was nice, a nice school, but I mean it was a law school. You can’t exactly expect people to be running around with purple streaks in their hair or anything like that like I did at one point. But, it was definitely a culture shock in comparison to Grinnell. I think a lot of the openness here I had taken for granted, and when I tell my friends about, y'know, this and this, the crossdressing party, they just- Mary B. James - I just... They just look at me like, “What in heaven’s name?” Some of my friends from law school have gone to more conservative undergraduate universities. “You lived on the same floor with boys?” This to me... I mean, I would have actually refused to live on an all-female floor, if I had the option.
Kristin Durianski::  But, so- but the- I haven’t talked that much about the academics thus far. I was a PoliSci major. I knew I was going to be a Poli Sci major pretty much when I started here, so I started taking intro right away. My focus kind of shifted. At first, I had a.. y'know, sort of vyin- for international politics. I had taken French and Italian in high school and I thought- y'know, I though I might be- might end up doing international law. But that, for whatever reason, I think my focus- when I took Constitutional Law with Ira Strauber. Oh good heavens.
Kristin Durianski::  Well, I had Howard Hanover for Political Theory my freshman year. Probably the dumbest thing I ever did; was probably one of two freshman in the class. I do not have a philosophical bend in my body, but that’s- theory’s one of the things that unfortunately you end up having to take and- at least in most social science disciplines, unfortunately. And, I mean, it literally kicked my ass. Those- and I still have my highlighted copies of Plato and Aristotle and all of that, but he pushed me probably harder than any professor ever has. He’s an acquired taste, to be certain.
Kristin Durianski::  But Constitutional Law especially, that- I just enjoyed reading case law, analyzing it, applying it, and I was crazy enough to take the advanced Con Law seminar with him. There were eight of us in that class. And of course, 8AM Tuesday-Thursday morning. That- but, I knew I wanted to take the class, but- and he actually- that was a class where he actually called us by our first names. Before, he’d always call us each by our last name. It was like, some of the cases like, "Wait, you have a first name?” That was absolutely crazy.
Kristin Durianski::  But, he wrote me, well I’d like to think, I’m hoping it was a glowing recommendation for law school, I mean I got in so that- he must have. But, and he ended up being my advisor as well. He always said I was intellectually virtuous. Meaning, y'know, I was like, “Yeah I wanna take math and science and I’ll throw some theater in there.” I just wanted to take all sorts of things. Of course, also took Organization and Administration of Athletics. I was like, “Yeah, I’m taking two Poli Sci classes and French, so that's- y'know- I wanna find something, well, easy, but-"
Kristin Durianski::  It- OK, it was an easy class, no doubt about that. But, it was actually just a lot of fun because at the time I was so interested in sports law and there was actually a section on sports law, like elements of negligence, just Torque law in general. So at least when I went into law school, I wasn’t always completely dense about some of that. But, that was, and that was interesting because there were a number of- the coaches/professors who I hadn’t had an opportunity to interact with yet and was able to meet, and who I, for the most part, just adored- ‘cause they were- it was a totally different perspective from the academic side of things.
Kristin Durianski::  Probably the - and I’ll confess this on tape ‘cause I’ve confessed it to several people - I’m a huge Cubs fan, as everyone who knew me would attest. By my senior year I was taking over the lounge when, basically, any time a Cubs game was on. The ten made about half of them on WGN. I’m sure this happens here but they run off. People run off with more remotes- you can ever imagine.
Kristin Durianski::  They changed the channel of WGN, which prompted a crank call from me to the cable company. “Where’s WGN now? Have you gotten rid of it?” We found, because our remote was gone in Norris, I would press the- you’d have to press the up and down button the TV to move the channel but for some reason it would skip over channel 37 which is what WGN was at the time and it was like oh, well this is no good.
Kristin Durianski::  So, I went to each- I just made my way south. I was like "OK, is the lounge empty? Do they have a remote? Will this remote work with our TV?" So I eventually found one in Read. I'm like, "They don’t watch TV over there anyway." So I took that remote, and I kept it in my room because I did not want anyone taking that remote from Norris, so I was able to- Y'know, so I’d be able to use it to watch my Cub games. Now, that last summer between my senior year and law school I was actually here doing summer institute for the summer. So, I ended up living in Read so I brought the remote back, but that was just one of the examples of some of the crazy, rather silly things that I did while I was here. They’ll probably make no sense to anyone, but...
Brenna Ross & Kristin Durianski::  I think it makes a lot of sense.
Brenna Ross & Kristin Durianski::  Sense? Yes, so.. But, yeah. Those are kind of some major things.
Brenna Ross & Kristin Durianski::  Well you mentioned you were involved in theater and the newsletter you sent out. Were you- what other activities?
Kristin Durianski::  Well, I did after school foreign language, actually, my last maybe two and a half years. Helped more on that program. I taught myself several classes, a few semesters teaching French and then one teaching Italian and it- I’ve always loved kids. One of the things that just - it really sticks in my head - one of the boys said, when I was teaching them colors and a French word for blue is “bleu”. “Every time you throw up you can think of the French word for blue.”
Kristin Durianski::  It was absolutely... That’s probably one of the things that, y'know, is why that sticks in my mind, but the interesting thing is, you’ve got kids after school who, they wanna run around and be absolutely crazy. So, your standard classroom setting is not going to work for any of that.
Kristin Durianski::  But, another thing I did, and I’m sorry I waited until my senior to do this. I had a radio show and my friend actually gave it the name: The Sacred and the Profane. Because he - a lot of classic rock folks- The fact that I would play Britney Spears and New Kids on the Block was considered rather profane to some. But also, folks tell me, “Hey, you’re playing music that we've actually heard of.”
Kristin Durianski::  My spin on the show when I pitched it in the application was, “Yeah, it’s music you’ve actually heard of, but something a little bit different.” Like, I would play Guns ‘n Roses, "Don’t Cry" - the Alternate lyrics, and things like that. Opened up one morning with Chuck Berry, "School Day". It was absolutely perfect. One of my mom’s friends would actually call in to chat about the Cubs, and so we’d do that on the air. Why the heck not? It’s just like the- it’s what... exactly what I wanted to. "Why not force my music on the entire campus?" So, that’s something that I wish I had gotten into a little bit earlier, but I just sort of decided, "Hey, this sounds like fun and something I should do."
Kristin Durianski::  I mean, that did- Oh. Another big thing that I was involved in was GEAR, the AIDs awareness organization. I got involved with that my sophomore year. We’d host- Let’s see, at one point we had an AIDs benefit on campus. Brought Brenda Wiler in to sing, and we had our auction of various things that people were donating. I just remember, Professor Bruce Boyles buying my friend Clair for 75 dollars to do some yard work at his place. Couldn’t tell you how much money that we raised, but it was hard organizing, but we had a good time doing it.
Kristin Durianski::  We also brought out Captain Condom. I still have the shirt that says- has Captain Condom on it, and you realize, now, that you'd get strange looks if I wore it in public, and it says, “If you get it on, put it on.”
Kristin Durianski::  We would always try to figure out how to raise awareness on campus. If I remember correctly, we.... Posting in the bathroom. It's like, "OK, here’s where all the condom machines are on campus," and y'know, things like that just to give people that information. We also, both my sophomore and senior years, we went to downtown Chicago for the AIDs walk. Always met up with alums. Made a nice weekend of it. I do remember the senior year, coming back, we had two vans driven by RLCs and there’s one who insisted on leading us in this crazy direction. We ended up in Wisconsin at one point, and.... Yes we- nobody was too happy with him at that point. Glad I was not in his vehicle, but....
Kristin Durianski::  One of the interesting things doing that, I was very much a North Campus person while I was here and that was one activity in particular that sort of got me hooking up with the South Campus people. Of course, they’d still be shocked when they saw me for lunch at Quad, but that was something that sort of broadened my horizons a bit and, y'know, something... pretty glad that I did.
Brenna Ross::  That sounds very cool. Let’s see, did you meet your spouse/partner at Grinnell?
Kristin Durianski::  I have no spouse and or partner. Yeah, that’s an interesting- Basically a lot of the people that I’ve met since here, I gotta say don’t measure up to some of the guys who I probably- I've idealized over the years. This one guy that I'm- I don’t know if I’m seeing him now. We’re not going to go into a long explanation of that, but I went to law school with him and sometimes when we’re having a discussion about like some procedural legal issue and I’m trying to pound it into his head and I’m starting think, “Y’know, if this were a Grinnell guy, he may completely disagree with me but it seems like it would sink in a lot quicker.”
Kristin Durianski::  I think that’s... For better or for worse, there’s some guys who still had that effect on me. But I think in the great scheme of things, I think it all amounts as out to the positive. That’s- Y'know, my various big crushes who are this weekend. Will I say anything? I presume not. But I tell you, at least a couple of them - I'm sure they knew, but "floorcest", it’s a bad idea. Just note that. It’s better that way.
Brenna Ross::  So knowing what you know now, what would you do- What would you have done differently?
Kristin Durianski::  I think when I first came, especially the first couple weeks in particular, I was pretty shy about, not necessarily meeting new people but just starting, and, y'know, getting into new activities. I mean, mixing with the floor. Just mixing with other people, and now I think I would’ve jumped into that a lot quicker.
Kristin Durianski::  The interesting thing for me is that two boys I went to high school with, one of whom is a really good friend of mine, both came here and there wasn’t, y’know, sticking like glue to him or anything, but at the same time, I don’t think it limited me, but you sort of have that, "OK, this is how I’m supposed to be, this is what I’m supposed to be doing," and I think I would’ve jumped into things.
Kristin Durianski::  The sad thing is I always look back and think, as far as the studying goes, "I could’ve done this a lot better," and that’s where the perfectionist quirks come in. This is how I could’ve studied. But, oh well. It got me to where I needed to go, so I think that’s...
Kristin Durianski::  But I definitely still would’ve come here and I can’t imagine I would’ve gone anywhere else. Maybe somewhere else might’ve been a better fit. I just can’t imagine where. The way I see it, I am eccentric, quirky, maybe that would’ve worked somewhere else, maybe not. But, it worked here.
Brenna Ross::  Have you noticed a change between Grinnell students of your time and Grinnell students now?
Kristin Durianski::  Well, at least, not so much from folks I’ve seen this weekend. One of the things that I noticed when I first got back on campus in 2002. Just even- That was... There’s more technology today. Where- I can just imagine some kid sitting there texting, sitting there with laptops in class. Things like that that would’ve been basically unthinkable when I was here. I mean, very few people had cell phones or if they did they didn’t use them very much.
Kristin Durianski::  I’m not so su- Y'know, everyone says, “Oh, the classes after me were more conservative.” That, I have no idea about. But, it seems like the ethos is still here. The free spirit, the intellectually curious. It seems to me that no matter if you’re shy or outgoing, everyone who is here makes it through here. To be more precise about it, does have an academic interest, does have a passion that they want to pursue.
Kristin Durianski::  Now, whether they end up doing something completely different- well, that’s pretty common. There’s always classes, always things that they’ll really get into, and I think that doesn’t change from year to year, decade to decade.
Brenna Ross::  So, kind of more specifically, what do you think sort of defines your class from the class before you and the class after you?
Kristin Durianski::  Well, I think we were the biggest class when we got here. I think we may have felt a little more short-changed in some ways. At least, as freshmen. But, I think there’s a definite difference between us and the class after us. Just in terms of if you wanted to be insulated, you had a much better chance of being insulated if you were the class of 2001, at least while you were in here, as opposed to later class-
Kristin Durianski::  I just think of September 11th. That was the.. y'know, pretty much the biggest, probably the biggest thing where no matter if you were living on Bur- I’m guessing if you were living on Burling 4th at that time, it still would have affected you. Things happened, obviously big things happened while we were here but you could sort of ig- Y'know, other than maybe the impeachment, and I think the only reason I couldn’t ignore that was because I was a Poli Sci major. We could be more insulated from the outside world.
Kristin Durianski::  Now that doesn’t mean to say that all of us were, because a lot of my class, obviously, went abroad. I did not. The whole thing was, it was just like were, more so than- we were our own little enclave that I think later classes don’t have. And whether you consider it a burden or a luxury, that’s up to you, but I think that’s a definite change, us from later classes.
Brenna Ross::  So if you were writing the history of Grinnell, what story do you think you would want to include?
Kristin Durianski::  I think that for me, it’s really about the people and I just think of, specifically Lyle. ‘Cause to me, as far as the... he was my supervisor for three years. He came my sophomore year, and to me that’s town-gown relations right there, I think. The relationship between Lyle and the school.
Kristin Durianski::  He- we actually went to go paint his house, I mean just as a- the summer after my senior year. Just y'know, helping out and that kind of thing. I think the relationship between our supervisors, the various... Not just our professors but just like the staff members and the students. I think that’s a pretty big story, just to me that’s one of the more positive effects on my life, here.
Brenna Ross & Kristin Durianski::  Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Brenna Ross & Kristin Durianski::  No, other than, "Go Pioneers."
