Hello!
This past week has been phenomenal. Being back in classes at Wellesley, even after the short 5 weeks that was winter break, reminds me all over again why I chose to come here and why I’m continuously grateful to be here.
My professors are all phenomenal teachers. I would single one of them out to talk about them individually, except they’re all equally intelligent, extremely good at teaching (which is a rarer skill than you would imagine; good teaching I mean), and very considerate of their students. Katie, my horticulture professor, makes everything dynamic, engaging, and fun, and is also so thoughtful of her students. Patrick, my econometrics professor, is extremely lively/enthusiastic at 8am, and is also hilariously witty. I have an ongoing list of quotes trailing up and down the margins of my notebook because he just says too many oh-my-goodness-I-must-write-that-down quotes. Haha. And my art history professor, whom I finally met since we didn’t have class the first Tuesday of the semester, is a phenomenal art historian who’s been featured in prominent publications and is part of multiple intellectual circles around the world, and also only teaches at Wellesley 1 semester a year because the rest of the time he’s living in Mexico City. What??
And to think that I get to be in the presence of these people, let alone be taught by them?
And then there’s the whole aspect of class sizes, where mine range from 10 to 20 students/class. That’s phenomenal. And I don’t appreciate it enough.
And our dining food is great. Not everyone would agree. But we’re truly given a very wide selection if only we choose to see it that way. I currently switched over to the paleo diet (also called the caveman diet; there’s a multitude of information on google about it) so my diet is a bit more (ahem, a lot) restricted compared to your normal college student’s diet. But I make do. And just two days ago I made an incredible smoothie. Ready to hear the ingredients? Here goes: peaches, blueberries, bananas, oranges, almonds, honey, celery, bacon. Yup. And that was one heck of a good smoothie. Couldn’t even taste the celery. And there were definitely like 3 whole sticks of celery in there!
But what I really am meaning to say in this post is: I am continuously reminded of how grateful I should be for the liberal arts education I’m receiving right now. I mean, it’s already phenomenal enough that I get to dedicate 4 whole years to just learning and sitting in a classroom with these highly intelligent professors and expanding my intellectual horizons and not have to worry about entering the work force. But it’s even more incredible that I have a curriculum that includes a natural sciences requirement + some sort of lab (hence my taking horticulture) and an art/music/history requirement (hence art history) and a language & literature requirement (my Law in Literature class last semester) and a history requirement (History of Chinese Commerce and Business) and the list goes on and on! I am so grateful that now I am able to speak (at least somewhat) intelligently about Chinese history as it pertains to trade, a variety of books with authors ranging from Kafka to Melville, and after this semester, about Latin American art history (with a focus on Frida Kahlo) and the biology of plants! That is a truly well-rounded curriculum and education. I’m glad I won’t be thrown out into the world after college only able to babble on about the one subject I majored in.
And I think that’s somewhat overlooked nowadays. The power of the liberal arts education I mean. Recently I had two interviews (one with Goldman Sachs and another was a 2nd round interview with State Street) and both times I was asked why I chose Wellesley. As well as what my “greatest weakness” is. I put a spin on it (a trick I learned from my good friend Caitlin McCarey) and said my greatest weakness (going into the financial hub that is Wall Street) would be my liberal arts background. But at the same time, while that liberal arts education hasn’t given (and won’t give) me the technical skills for finance, I’m a fast learner and I have a multitude of other skills that a lot of finance majors who didn’t go to liberal arts schools don’t have. Does that make sense? And I think my interviewers respected me for a) addressing their concerns about the fact that I do indeed go to a liberal arts college and b) having a good answer and proving my competence despite my supposed “weakness”.
And that’s all I really wanted to say today. Lots has happened this past week, and I’m currently at MIT right now because last night we had a mini high school reunion of all of us who are at MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley, but there’s no way I can possibly write about everything that’s happened this past week, so I chose to focus on one thing that’s really been a recurring thought this week and has provoked a lot of self-reflection.
On that note though, I do want to add that I went to spectate the 6th annual DarkHorse rock climbing competition series last Saturday! My gym in Boston hosts it every year. I got to meet some pretty cool people, including 2 famous climbers, shown below:
On the left is Alex Puccio, currently the top female boulderer in the nation, and on the right is Ashima Shiraishi, who’s only 13 and is already one of the top climbers in the world! (What.)
And of course, the cover photo of this post is from last night! We’re all from Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, CA and all of us go to school in the Boston area except Shannia (far left) who somehow doesn’t have class at Middlebury right now haha. ‘Twas a fun night! Out of all of us, Genevieve (2nd from the right), Lucy (far right), and I go to Wellesley.
And that’ll be it for this week! Enjoy the weekend and (if you’re on this coast) stay warm!
~Emily