Wellesley College has several libraries. I won’t pretend that I’ve been to them all, because to be perfectly honest, I only started going to a library last year. Something about being an English major lends itself to lazily reading in your bed instead of posting up in a library.
Thesis writing totally changed that. I now have my own little thesis carrel (which of course I had no idea how to spell until the beginning of last semester) and like to sit cooped up with post it notes and books spread out in front of me.
For me, not much thought went into picking my carrel location. In much the same way I don’t really consider location when picking a library. I feel like for some people it’s very much like that scene in Mean Girls when Cady is trying to navigate the cafeteria.
“Where you sit in the cafeteria is crucial because you got everybody there. You got your Freshmen, ROTC Guys, Preps, JV Jocks, Asian Nerds, Cool Asians, Varsity Jocks, Unfriendly Black Hotties, Girls Who Eat Their Feelings, Girls Who Don’t Eat Anything, Desperate Wannabes, Burnouts, Sexually Active Band Geeks, The Greatest People You Will Ever Meet, and The Worst.”
At Wellesley the scales tip closer to ‘asian nerds’ than to the ‘ROTC guys’ for obvious reasons.
As for the Wellesley libraries, you got your art library, music library, Knapp, Clapp, science library, research library, secret library, reading rooms, desks with views of the lake, private study rooms, giant tables surrounded by books, the greatest library staff you will ever meet, and the worst way to spend a Friday night. Now that the libraries are open til 2 a.m., it can get pretty cray up in here during midterm season. Circa now.
In order to avoid the caffeine crazed Wendy Wellesleys, I park myself in my carrel and pretend to do work (even though I’m on pinterest and texting my little). I’m surrounded with books about immigration policy and ethnic/class structures in colonial Trinidad. I might need a bigger desk.
