I am finally at home, resting up before my next adventure in England next week through Rutgers Study Abroad. Creative Writing under Paul Blaney <3
Finals went really well, and I got a 4.0 this semester! I was actually super sad to take my finals one after another, and be done officially last Tuesday at 4pm, handing in my final paper for Anthro. It is a very surreal feeling to be back at home, bumming in my room like I have done every summer of my life. It always gets super humid because I have an awful draft in my room that air conditioning/heat keeps out in vain. I will be seeing my best friend from Villanova, Elyse, in an hour, reunited for our antics at Chipotle. It will feel like nothing has changed between us--like we did not spend eight months away from each other at very different schools. Unfortunately, or as a hidden blessing, fortunately... I cannot say the same for all of the people I hung out with throughout elementary and high school. College changes people, for better or for worse, and you accept or deny the change it brings. It is nice to see that everyone is growing. Change is something that I have come to learn and accept this year. It is one of those inevitable things that make me somewhat uncomfortable and somewhat relieved.
I watched myself grow a lot this past year, and pushed myself to do things I never thought I would become involved with in years, like RUSHing and pledging a sorority, writing for a arts and opinions magazine instead of a literary magazine, or hiking up mountains and volcanoes. I understood my innate passion for women's leadership through Douglass Residential College and Iota Sigma Beta. I learned how to be mature in my relationships--it takes a lot of hard work to get to a happy plateau, but it's more than worth it.
I stayed on campus until Saturday, training to be a Red Pine Ambassador, or one of those lovely Douglass tour guides (let me give you a tour sometime!). My first big initiation to the group involved serving as part of the Honor Guard for the Douglass Residential College Commencement, the 90th since its inception in 1918. I helped led faculty and distinguished students up onto the stage set up on Antilles Field (this guy named James Neilson donated most of the land Douglass College resides on, hence why the dining hall is named after a man and not a woman. Antilles is one of his beloved ships, or so the story goes) and guarded roped off sections to make sure the audience didn't get TOO crazy when their daughter's name got called. I cried in front of everyone--my robe was sooo wet--when Jill Bartlett, one of my Leadership Quest guides, delivered her speech on the "moments of perhaps" which make up our lives. It's a loaded word full of uncertainty and also of hope. I saw the friends I had made through working with the Douglass Student Recruitment Network walk up to the stage for their certificates and waved them off, excited but also sad that I would not be side by side with them for the next three years at Douglass and Rutgers. Us Douglass women are POWERHOUSES, let me tell you all. I was so proud to be able to watch their special day and know mine will come in a heartbeat, whether I want it to or not. Gotta love college and what people label "the best years of your life." It's been freakin' wonderful.
I went back to Rutgers the next day to watch the University-wide Commencement, which started a new tradition of having everyone graduate together--graduate students, Newark students, Camden students, all thousands of New Brunswick School of Arts and Sciences students--I was so proud to go to such a diverse and accomplished university as they recounted our Nobel Prize winners and statistics on who goes where after college. Toni Morrison (btw, I got a book signed by her at Rutgers Newark, JUST SAYIN') delivered a speech about how much better the world can be if we work towards it. She's not afraid to lay it down how it really is, and won't sugar coat what she perceives can be improved. Love her for that, love her wisdom and brutal honesty. We need to hear it sometimes, if we want to be the change in the world. I went to the English and Humanities graduation afterwards to support my love <3 and again was so proud to see my Literary Study professor read poems she taught us in class, and to hear everyone's names called with honors, high honors, etc. People are off to do Teach for America, graduate schools all over the country, etc. A very accomplished group of people passionate about humanities, when it seems like there are no other outlets for them. I will also be standing on Voorhees Mall in three years, waving goodbye to another journey in my life. It is bittersweet to say goodbye to people I have admired all year, but I know their influence and example will help propel me to do great things for the next three years. You all rock. Live it up in the real world and come back to visit me, all eighteen years of myself, scared and ambitious as I'm sure you all were :)
CONGRATZ RUTGERS CLASS OF 2011!
(This won't be the last you hear from me ;) !)
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