Hello everyone! I hope you had a delightful and restful thanksgiving. This post is coming to you somewhat later than usual, but I have a wonderful excuse; I just got back from a long catching up session (over Panera!) with my two best friends from high school. Even if it’s only for a couple days, it’s wonderful to be home, surrounded by the people and places I’ve known for so long.
One of the things I found jarring about going into college last year was that sometimes it felt like I was Hannah Montana. Leading a double life, that is. Wellesley and my New Jersey hometown sometimes felt like they were worlds apart, and turning off one world for another wasn’t always easy. But this year, sophomore year, it’s gotten easier, because it doesn’t feel like going from school to home, but rather from one home to another. I genuinely feel like I have two homes now. Even though I have a small mountain of work waiting for me upon getting back to Wellesley, I’m still eager to go back to that world and those friends and finish off the semester.
In other news, I successfully submitted my proposal to study away today! I’m currently torn between Europe and the Galapagos Islands, but I’ve been reassured by upperclasswomen that the proposal isn’t binding and I still have plenty of time to change my mind. And, as part of submitting that proposal, sophomores looking to study abroad have to declare their majors early…and so you are officially reading the words of a Biology major! I’ve planned out most of my major requirements until graduation. Even if it’s not a five-year plan, it’s a tentative two-year one, so that’s something.
I also have a small job offer for wintersession, something creative to do besides writing application essays for summer undergraduate research. Last summer I interned for an award-winning freelance radio producer, helping her out with editing podcasts and learning how to shape a story within an interview. And she asked me back for wintersession (for pay this time!). We’re working on a podcast series exploring the societal and familial expectations associated with dinner and cooking. Hopefully I’ll be able to share the end result with you.
I’m going to leave you with some pictures; first from my night at the Boston Symphony last Friday. I’m definitely going to be making an effort to go back to the symphony because it was really something special, and these performances of Shostakovich 5 and the Berg Concerto (both moving, hopeful, and pain-filled pieces) were even more powerful as they were dedicated to the victims of the Paris and Lebanon attacks.
Symphony hall lit up in the colors of the Paris flag
And finally on a lighter note, my bus home unexpectedly drove past the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade balloons being blown up near Central Park, something I had for some reason completely forgotten and which was such a welcome sight after a six hour bus ride I couldn’t help but smile.
Ever lovely yours,
Eleanor
An unexpected Snoopy sighting, mid-inflation