…and just like that, we’re back. Back at Wellesley where the sky is blue and professors are ready for you with their syllabi and readings.
Hi there.
It’s been a while.
It’s been five weeks.
The day I finished my final exam back in December, I packed up my things and by the following afternoon I was on a plane headed back to my hometown – TOKYO. Being with family and friends for a little over a month was faaantastic. and really bad for my health because I did not stick to a routine. I slept, ate, danced, sang at all hours of the day – so much so that at one point during the break I got so sick, I couldn’t get out of bed for two whole days. I had great ramen though, which totally made up for the being sick part.
But overall, I loved being home. I missed it a lot, but I also missed Wellesley while I was gone, too. The quiet, the beautiful campus, the amazing and quirky people, the books, my dorm… this is only my second semester here and already Wellesley feels so comfortable and so right.
I was thinking all day about what to write for my first post back, and I figured it had to be about my Modern Poetry class with the Professor Frank Bidart. I had heard about him from some of my friends, who’d sworn he’d won some award for some book, and that he’s friends with James Franco “or something like that”. So I looked him up…..
turns out my friend was right.
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Filmmaker-James-Franco-poet-Frank-Bidart-Feb-19/46054.html
(apparently Professor Bidart wrote a poem called Herbert White, which was inspiration for a short film featuring the beautiful and talented actor, James Franco. Cool. No big deal.)
Honestly, I had never felt so mind-blown and inspired after just one class. But the beauty of the class wasn’t just in the way Professor Bidart drew the entire room of 45 students (including 6 auditors) into his explanation of Yeats’ poems. I enjoyed the class so much because I was able to meet other students who were as eager to learn from this professor as I was. The person I was sitting next to happened to be an older man who had been auditing classes at the college for several years now. He and I talked about everything from traveling to the Himalayas and the North Pole, to the American immigrant experience, to the nuclear power plants in Japan, to the best theaters to catch shows in around the greater Boston area, while we waited for our professor to show up (an hour late).
This is the charm of Wellesley. You’re constantly being surprised by the things you hear and learn no matter where you are on campus.
You make friends with people you might never have talked to in any other situation.
You feel so free to express how much you love learning and being inspired, that you rush back to your dorm to write about it in a blog.
I hope you are all enjoying the month of January as much as I am. 2014 is going to be a great year. I can just feel it.