Author: oakinolu

Hi guys,

This week’s post should be short since all that’s really been on my mind since last week is the fact that Thanksgiving break starts tomorrow! [yay!] As you can imagine, I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving at home. But I spent the break with family last fall and will be with family friends this year. I figured that, despite the fact that I don’t know much about Thanksgiving traditions, I’ll just use the holiday to be thankful for all that I have. So…

(a) I’m thankful for being able to go to a college where I’m surrounded by intelligent women and faculty who encourage me to be the best that I can be. I am not afraid to say what comes to my mind every time I am in class because I know that at least one person will agree with me, and I know that my opinion matters.

(b) I’m thankful for opportunities to relax like a jazz show in the living room of Tau Zeta Epsilon, the arts and music society on campus. [I went to listen to a group from the New England Conservatory called Brother Sun Sister Moon perform in their living room for about 2 hours on Thursday night.] I played the piano for almost 4 years when I was in middle and high school, sang in the choir for three and absolutely love guitar players (and secretly wish I could play too!) so I really like music. Unfortunately, I dropped all of that in my junior year of high school and haven’t done much in the music department since… But I hope that I’ll remember a thing or two when I next pick up a piano score.

(c) I’m thankful for my family and friends who support me and never give up on me. Yes, prospective students, college is hard. Classes are not as easy as they were in high school, readings are much longer and cover a lot in short amounts of time, professors expect more from you than the typical regurgitation of what you memorized, and there’s often too much to do so you cannot relax before the weekend. I read somewhere “at Wellesley, we’ll sleep when we’re dead,” and some days, I have to agree with this statement (thankfully not this week!) But college is also a great learning experience, and is good preparation for “the real world” so you will see that it’s all worth it in the end! 🙂

(d) I’m thankful for classes that are interesting and that challenge my way of thinking about things and people. Last week, my development class went to the Child Study Center, a laboratory-preschool on campus that works closely with the psychology department. We observed three classes of children aged 2 to 5. Those children, who are most of the time oblivious to our presence, are the next generation of future leaders. Like us, they have the capacity to make a difference. Strangely enough, when we look at kids, we don’t always think that. We laugh at them because they do something that we find funny, we patronize them/are condescending and we sometimes treat them like dolls. Very few of us will say “wow! what that 4 year old said is really clever! she’s smart!” because we probably didn’t listen or pay close attention to what she said. My PSYC 207 class helps me think of aspects of children development that shape a child’s personality and future behavior from the the time he/she is born. As such, one can argue that President Obama is president of the United States today because his family encouraged him to become a great leader from an early age. Similarly, one can argue that people like the Boston Strangler were not encouraged by their family and friends. So note: let’s give more credit to those little kids- they might be shorter than us, but they’ve also got something important to say!

(e) I’m thankful for people who put a smile on your face when you least expect it. Always smile!

(f) I’m thankful for the people who make my experience at Wellesley College smooth and enjoyable. A friend of mine told me the other day that one of the workers in Green Hall baked for her earlier this semester. The reason? My friend always smiles at the lady and says hi whenever they meet. We tend to forget the support staff at our homes, schools, clubs etc… when we get caught up with our own lives. But those people are the reason your experience and time at home, school and in your club is especially enjoyable.

(g) I’m thankful for being able to meet so many enthusiastic prospective students as part of my job as a student assistant for the admissions office. In addition to being a blogger, I give tours. In that capacity, I get to meet people from a over the US and get to share with them what I like about Wellesley. If you’ve ever been on a tour with me, thank you for having an interest in Wellesley and I hope that you decide to apply! 🙂

(h) I’m thankful for being able to go to a school near a movie theatre and a mall. I never read the books but some of my friends wanted to see Breaking Dawn, the 4th movie from the hit saga Twilight. Since it had come out the night before, we expected the cinema to be full. We turned out to be lucky since there was no line at the entrance of the theater in Framingham, MA! We enjoyed the movie and are eager to see the next and final movie from the saga. In the meantime, I’m looking for someone who wants to watch J.Edgar (a movie about J. Edgar Hoover, the very first director of the F.B.I) with me.

(i) And, finally, I’m thankful for Wellesley College and I thank whoever decided to give us an extra day for this year’s Thanksgiving break!!

So here’s my Thanksgiving list, prospectives! I wish you all an amazing break and hope that you will have a good time with your friends and family! Until then, this was me Lori x