In late March, my newsfeed was full of proud and awed friends sharing Outsports’ profile of Jarred Kennedy-Loving ’15. Jarred talked about the experience of coming out as gay, and coming into his dance and Gender and Women’s Studies interests. He also touched on the importance of challenging gender stereotypes, such as the accepted meaning of ‘manhood’.
Next weekend Jarred will present a paper at the Gender Matters conference at DePaul University in Chicago—yet Jarred initially resisted taking his first GWS course at Bowdoin. “I won’t be able to get a job” and “men don’t do this” were two of his misconceptions, but he quickly fell in love with the subject matter of Professor Abdurraqib’s 101 course.
“The readings were the most interesting reading I’ve ever done,” says Jarred, “I was scared of the unknown…I’m so proud of myself because being at Bowdoin has taught me to take risks.”
However, when Jarred reflects on his experience at Bowdoin thus far, he laments that the students don’t take more risks in how they express themselves and who they get to know. “There aren’t many people here you can have genuine conversations [with]” on race and class, explains Jarred. While cliques form based on the principle “everyone’s drawn to people who are like themselves,” explains Jarred, he tries to seek out people that he feels are “genuine”.
Jarred stays positive, even as he critiques elements of superficiality in Bowdoin’s culture: “Every day I’m here at this school, I’m grateful for the people I meet, the scholarships I’ve won, the people in the dining services…”
If Jarred could give a piece of advice to his fellow students, he’d draw upon the message of Steve Jobs, who extolled failure. “It’s ok to be wrong,” Jarred says, “it’s ok to fail”—especially if this ‘failure’ is in the pursuit of a new passion or less convenient friendship.
“Failure is the recipe to life.”