A Black Hairy Girl Fulfilling a Diversity Quota for a few Days in Oregon part 5 (The Last Day)

In my last day of fulfilling the Diversity Quota for a few days in Oregon, I made a visit to Portland State University, where I got accepted into their Urban Planning Masters program. I had an appointment with Dr. Bates in the department to talk about some of the facets of the program and maybe possibly be my advisor if I choose to go into the program. So I took MAX and went down to PSU and the campus was gorgeous. Half of it essentially blended in with the rest of the city and the other half had old brick buildings with lots of tall blossoming trees. It was so gorgeous that I got lost trying to find the Urban Planning and Affairs building. I was scrambling on google maps to find the building, but even the map was confused too. So after asking four different people, I finally arrived at the Planning department with three minutes left to spare. What allowed me to breathe a little bit was that there was a cute brown guy with a tattoo sleeve on his arm which put me at ease. So then finding Dr. Bate's office was also a task because there were so many different doors to access. I eventually found her and she approached me. After seeing a black woman in that department, I kind of wanted her to be my friend, to be honest! I sat with her in the department lounge and she listened to me stuttering my questions as Dr. Bates was folding her newsletter for her upcoming projects on how to create black-owned businesses within Portland. It was my fault that a few of the questions that I asked could have been from the website (should have prepared more and better), but we ultimately talked about our experiences in Portland. How she navigated the predominately white spaces and also my experiences. We bonded over binge-watching on Netflix specifically AJ from "Queer Eye". I talked about my aspirations for the program and ultimately left feeling a little conflicted. PSU is amazing, but apart of me wants to see what is out there, so we will see. That decision is for another storyline. After that, I got an early lunch from O' Latte Bagels where for some reason I started flirting Todd, a roughly thirty-year-old white guy with a tattoo sleeve on his left arm (can you now see the pattern of who I am mainly attracted to!!). The bagel was decent, but he was really cute to look at! We exchange names and we said our goodbyes. I was walking towards downtown and I realized that by meeting the professor and flirting with Todd, I have essentially laid my foundation on that campus. Anyhow, I still want to consider other options so we will see. From this I am concluding this trip, it has enabled me to explore more about myself that I did not like and it has taught me to be patient with myself and to be comfortable with the messiness. This trip has also made me realize how much I miss my people on the East Coast. I hope to see them in the near future. As of now, I have officially completed my duties of fulfilling the diversity quota in Oregon. I now travel back to California and finish out my time there. Until next time!