In "Walking the Path Between Worlds," Lori Arviso Alvord tells us about her experiences as a Navajo woman moving from her home in New Mexico to college at Dartmouth.
People that belonged to her community in New Mexico were afraid of meeting non-Indians. Now that she had to live among them, she argues that there were very different values at the university that threatened her comfort zone.
She is uncomfortable with the physical appearance of most people. There are some practices she is not used to, such as raising your hand in class, which she thinks draws too much attention to yourself. She also wonders if people at Darmouth respect their elders and their parents.
However, in the end Alvord says that she learned new songs, and that singing with her new community brought her closer to them. She comes to realize that she can choose to build a different community in Darmouth. Alvord says that the historical "grief" and "anger" she had been carrying around became a large, powerful force that would guide her into the world.