Circle Prompt #2

We all know that one couple who chose to attend the same college purely to be with one another and avoid a long-distance relationship. Whether doing so works out in their favor or not, one commonality holds true that every person who has ever been in a relationship knows: experience is affected by intimacy. A person never realizes how drastically their surroundings can be altered by a relationship until they are in one. For this blog, I will detail just how easily experience and intimacy can be related.

Soon after starting at The Circle, Mae meets Francis. At first, she is unsure of how she feels about him; she says he is "new and bizarre and speaking bizarrely" (Eggers 36). However, as the novel progresses, Mae begins to gain a more intimate relationship with Francis and, in turn, starts to gain a different perspective of The Circle. She shares her first kiss with him after dinner one night and becomes increasingly comfortable talking and being with him. Because of this, Mae also becomes more comfortable and assimilated at The Circle. She now has friends and a man in her life, making her more social and helping her learn her whereabouts in her new environment. For the most part, Mae's overall experience at The Circle is heightened when she has somebody with whom to share it. Francis gives Mae relief from her work and an intimacy human nature desires.

Mae's budding intimacy with Francis has its negative effects on her experience, as well. Shortly after the two exchange their first kiss, Francis puts Mae on the spot during the Dream Friday event. She is instantly embarrassed, and her current experience is one of humiliation and anger. Eggers describes Mae's reaction to Gus's and Francis's LuvLuv presentation: "Mae had first hidden behind her hands, then sunk to the lowest-possible place in her seat, and finally...she slipped out of her seat, across the aisle, out of the auditorium's side door and into the flat white light of an overcast afternoon" (125), showing how her intimate relationship with Francis turned out to shape her experience at Dream Friday negatively. Obviously, in this instance, intimacy did not heighten her experience, but worsened it; a close and intimate relationship can therefore have both positive and negative affects on a person's experience.

I have come to understand this relation, as well. A year ago, I started to date my boyfriend. My senior year experience was greatly heightened because I had someone extra with whom I could create memories. Coming to college, however, forced me to understand that intimacy can have its negative affects on experience, too. While I have loved my experience here so far and can't picture myself anywhere else, I find myself constantly wondering what it would be like if my boyfriend and I went to the same college. He is all the way down in New Orleans, so I know I will not have the opportunity to see him until Thanksgiving; and even though I'm having so much fun, we all have those days when we get a little homesick and miss people who used to be in our lives all the time (family, as well). My overall experience here has been a very good one, but I can't help but miss my family, friends, and boyfriend every once and a while and wonder if my experience here is being slightly hindered by that longing. Just like Mae, I experience ups and downs from intimacy (whether that intimacy be with my old friends, family, or boyfriend). Without a doubt, intimacy and experience are directly connected.

Work Cited:
Eggers, Dave. The Circle. New York: Vintage, 2013. Print.