Welcome, welcome to the first members of the Red Class of 2020! We are so very excited to have you join the Wellesley community! For some advice for the next eight months in between, I refer you back to my open letter to early applicants, in which I tell you all the things I wish I knew in the limbo-months in between high school and college. I know I cried dramatically listening to Dvorak at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center a few days after getting in, but people have different ways of celebrating their accomplishments, so please take some time to appreciate yours. However eager you are to get out, try to enjoy the rest of high school: your picnics, your prom, the friends you’re lucky enough to see on a day-to-day basis. The things from home that matter have a way of returning to you, but at the same time, you should enjoy the experience that is senior year, because there are some moments you simply aren’t going to be able to capture again. For those of you who may be disappointed, please know that however important they may seem, college decisions are not a reflection on the core of everything you are. You are still accomplished and worthy, and you are still going to do the wonderful things you want to do. It may not feel like this at the time, but I firmly believe that we end up where we’re meant to be. Sending nothing but best wishes and good vibes your way.
Switching gears entirely to the craziness that has unfolded since my supportive office-hour near meltdown last Friday (under the weight of 16 pages of unwritten essays). Accomplishments since then include:
- Writing 21 pages of lab report & philosophy paper combined in one weekend. It’s truly a surreal experience to write for eleven hours straight, and then get up the next day to do the same thing again. I can’t say I’d recommend it as a good time, but it also left me feeling strangely invincible, that I was able to get all this accomplished. Like I had transcended academia or something, and that no matter how overwhelming the request, I was capable of delivering. Handing in my papers I felt giddy, and so, like the responsible adult I am, walked to the science center…to do coloring books and eat copious amounts of sugar cookies with my favorite biology department.
Cookie consumption goes up around here come finals
- Performing some of the best (Arnold) Mendelssohn out there. Our chamber music concert was this Monday, and our performance was pretty on point, if I do say so myself. I’m pretty sure I heard the audible intake of breath from the audience when we started, which is the kind of moment I live for as a performer (besides standing ovations in prestigious concert halls, but you don’t get those every day). It’s always bittersweet to perform because it means saying goodbye to your group, but I’m so lucky to have had the chance to work with such lovely and talented musicians and improve our music-making together.
- Performing the Havanaise under pressure at my evaluation. My end of the semester jury (technically “evaluation”) was this Wednesday, which involves playing for both the string faculty and a handful of super-talented peers. I had the distinct honor (read nerve-wracking position) of playing last after an hour of sitting still and nervously listening. And I was playing the Havanaise, which even with the hardest part cut, is probably the most technically demanding piece I’ve ever played. But I made it through, with many lovely moments and a few rough ones. Looking forward to lots of practicing time over Wintersession and even more progress next semester.
It’s reading period now, the last few days before the wave of finals begin. I have three: Chem, Bio, and Econ, which I’ll be taking in that order.
To be honest, the vast majority of photos on my phone right now look something like this, so I have very little to offer you in terms of quality photos this week
By the time I write you next, they’ll be done and I’ll be packing to go home. In the meantime, though, I have an Econ review session and a “ kind of figure out summer internships” session with my advisor this afternoon, so:
Ever lovely yours,
-Eleanor
