Member Spotlight: Zarathi al'Domir
Author: Emory Sheldon
1 September 2011
Did you know that the human eye can distinguish about 500 shades of gray? In addition, gray “is considered a color of compromise, perhaps because it sits between the extremes of black and white. Gray is a perfect neutral.” (source) I personally think the color gray shines, especially when talking about our very own Gray Ajah at TarValon.Net.
From the beginning, Zarathi Sedai was “pretty eager to move up.” She joined TarValon.Net in August 2007 and was raised Aes Sedai in October 2008. Her “favorite part of [being a junior member in the tower] was the part [she wished she] could have spent more time—being an Accepted.” Then she gave some wonderful advice for all Accepted. “The guesting system offers Accepted a very unique opportunity to really get to know the Ajahs. I was so focused on trying to figure out where I belonged that I forgot that even though I knew I didn’t belong in some Ajahs, I could still use the opportunity to get to know some of the lovely ladies in the Ajahs which I may never see outside of their sitting rooms.”
So why did Zarathi Sedai choose the Gray Ajah? It turns out that the decision surprised even her. There was one Ajah (sorry she did not reveal which one) she just “knew” she belonged in. However, she felt drawn to the Gray, “I stayed in both for a few weeks more and went back and forth on a decision. (I already knew I was Gray, but just didn’t want to admit to myself that I was wrong about what Ajah I just *knew* I belonged in.) I was chatting with an Aes Sedai … about the Ajah and why she chose the Ajah and her experiences within it. I also really enjoyed the chatting in general in #graychat and really didn’t want to lose that by going with another Ajah who wasn’t so active in chat. This was the moment that sealed the deal for me.”
Now the Gray Ajah has her. On her Who’s Who page, she admits to being like the Grays in the in the Wheel of Time. She is a mediator and her “advice is pretty blunt and straight forward.” She has served has Hart and as a Sitter for the Gray Ajah. She also admits that she was told, her “term as a Sitter was pretty quiet.” I laughed when she told me she didn’t “know any of the specifics of *how* [her] term was quiet, but that’s what [she] heard.” She definitely enjoyed the whole experience. Nevertheless, her favorite part of TarValon.Net is “the support the community offers. Everyone is so helpful no matter what you need at that moment—somebody to vent to, advice from those who have ‘been there, done that,’ a hug, and even a good stern lecture when needed.”
In the real world, because we all know we have to have one, Zarathi Sedai also shines. She loves traveling and hopes that the UK will be checked off her list in the near future. She also enjoys jogging to de-stress and “reading nearly anything”. She has been married since March 21, 2009 and has an old red dachshund named Joshua who is “more gray than red”, and a cat named Lina, “short for Thumbelina since she was so small when [they] got her”. However, what most intrigued me what her choice of carrier. From reading her Who’s Who page, I discovered she has always wanted to be a teacher but was a little undecided when it came to the subject. Over her life, she transitioned from music to math and I wanted to know how she finally came to that decision. She first thought that music would be her carrier. She started playing piano at a very early age and picked up the violin later. However, she eventually decided that it “would be a nice side job, but not a good career”. She also picked up Spanish in the third grade and studied it up through collage. Her “main Spanish teacher was awesome, but the guy [she] had for [her] second semester of Spanish really annoyed [her]. He reminded [her] of Matlock teaching Spanish”. I am not very good with languages but I really wish I could have seen that. The other two subjects were math and science. Eventually, math won and she then moved on to finish both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mathematics Education.
Now that we know how lucky the Gray Ajah is to have such a shining Sister like Zarathi Sedai, I had to ask one final question. What is all the pie stuff about? She had this for me, “Yes, I’ve been pied. There’s not a video because we failed at getting it done before it was dark outside”, definitely something to look forward to for all you aspiring Grays.
