Rather, I feel hugely sentimental about saying my goodbyes to Wellesley. I knew that, when I made the choice to come here, I was choosing an unusual college experience. Someone once told me that Wellesley is a long-term investment: you get torn apart and built back up stronger and smarter for the "Real World." Though this may be true (I've cried in front of countless faculty members, including my boss), the experience of being a Wellesley student has been so much more than that. I'm certain that this place is a hundred times more fun than what comes next. When again in my life will I have weekly improv practice with my closest friends, or be a part of a co-op where I get paid to make sandwiches and help foster a little campus community?
More importantly: when else in my life am I going to be taken as seriously as I am here? It's hard not to take Wellesley for granted, but the older I get, the more aware I become of my gender, for better or worse. Never again will I be consistently surrounded by as many passionate, intelligent, motivated people. Nor will I be able to voice my opinions without being discounted because I'm a woman. But I suppose it's up to us to break down those perceptions and stereotypes. If Wellesley has prepared us to do anything, it's just that.
To summarize: This sentimentality is premature, yes, but Wellesley has been important to my development in ways I never could have imagined four years ago, and I don't really want to graduate...yet.
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| Supertree outside my window |
"Never again will I be consistently surrounded by as many passionate, intelligent, motivated people. Nor will I be able to voice my opinions without being discounted because I'm a woman. But I suppose it's up to us to break down those perceptions and stereotypes. If Wellesley has prepared us to do anything, it's just that."
ReplyDelete- yes: last night I was at a party talking to a woman I hadn't seen in a while, a friend of my parents', about how yes, as an English major, maybe academia could be a career... maybe... but god, it's all just too political?!?! To which she said - yeah, sure, perhaps as things stand, they are -- but if you're in, and other people like you, why should it have to be???
it seems so simple, so obvious, but -- it literally NEVER occurred to me that my friends and I could have power like this. (despite the fact that yes, in theory, i'm all for that super-affirmative ' be the change you want to see ' spiel.) I mean, I guess it's not so simple -- but hearing her put it that way was so freeing, because someone else (from another generation!) actually believed that change could happen so easily, that someone like me had a choice. it was, like, way illuminating and - honestly - when she said it, i could feel myself relax.
i suppose this is all a way of recommending against the term "never again" - because that could be us ! really ! we could have that happen ! xx victoria