Good afternoon!
School is finally over. I can’t believe I’m technically a sophomore in college! Everyone I talk to tells me it went by so fast, but I’m going to have to disagree there. It was a long trip, with many challenges: academic, social, family, fitting in. And yet I think I’ve come out better than when I started, and I am excited to continue developing throughout the remaining three years.
I am home in Minnesota now! Last Friday through Monday was my crazy neuro weekend, in which I studied more than 10 hours a day, sitting at my desk in self-induced isolation. There’s a reason I’m not a fan of studying, but it worked out and I think I did reasonably on the test on Tuesday morning. The rest of Tuesday I spent frantically packing (who knew it would take so long!), as my family out in Boston (Rachel, Jim, Gemma and Chloe) were so kindly willing to store my stuff for the two weeks in which I am spending here (in MN) before I go back to do research at Wellesley. Packing was kind of a confusing process, because I was storing stuff at Rachel and Jim’s house, some at McAffee (one of the Wellesley dorms), bringing some home, and putting some in summer-long storage in Cazenove (the Wellesley dorm I lived in this year.) I’ve never really had the experience of having to throw perfectly good stuff away because I had no room. Luckily, Wellesley has this marvelous program called “Sustainable Moveout,” whereby anyone who has clothes or electronics or new/lightly-used things can put them in a large container, and they will be sorted through for donation to charity or to be sold in Wellesley’s huge rummage sale in the beginning of the year. I spent a while perusing through different dorms’ Sustainable Moveout bins, collecting books and an umbrella along the way. I also contributed substantially to my own dorm’s bin :).
Study groups or hangout time-- finals finished for some of my dormmates sooner than mine did, and it was nice to sit outside studying and listen to the happy chatter
Volleyball games were going on as well on the Quad 🙂
Wednesday afternoon I caught my flight back to Minnesota. Though I was not fond of public transportation in the beginning of the year, by this point I think taking the commuter rail and then the bus to the airport is much more convenient than having a car! For $7.25 and 2 hours, you can get from Wellesley College to an airplane gate with no trouble at all (except at Christmas—then the bus system is insane and I still need to figure out how I’m going to negotiate that situation next year.) It was a painless process and one I’m proud of ;).
Then, my arrival at home! It’s been wonderful to see my sisters and parents again, especially since this is a busy week for them. My middle sister, Leslie, has her synchronized swimming sections competition this week (Thursday and Saturday), and Nicole has two music concerts (the MMTA State Piano Honors concert, and her school band concert) this weekend as well. As such, my mother is in a flurry of activity preparing for those performances (hemming dresses, making brochures, making headpieces, selling fundraiser flowers), which I have been enlisted to help with :). My father is working, and my sisters are both in school as well, though the dreaded AP tests are over by this point!
Nicole and Leslie playing left and right hands on the piano for fun 🙂
It will be so nice to be able to attend my sisters’ performances—they are both interested in different things than I (Nicole with her music and Leslie with synchro) but I rarely had the chance to attend their events in the past few years because of my own activities. On the other hand, it is very odd to be sitting around at home while they go about their daily routines. The routines have changed since I’ve been here last as well—it is just such an odd experience to be re-incorporated into a family life which doesn’t include me anymore. Then again, I suppose it is no stranger than me developing my life without them at Wellesley—it just strikes me when we are together again how much (and yet, how little), has changed.
My plans right now are to hang out, read books, meet with friends, help around the house, and spend time with family. I have no doubt that in a week I’ll have to give myself a project to keep myself entertained, but for now it’s so nice to realize that when I’m not doing anything, it’s not a waste of valuable time that I could have been using to do homework, but rather just the expectation :). Yesterday I finally executed the Wellesley chop (students have a tendency to cut their hair off after arrival at Wellesley) that I’ve been planning for some time; I am quite pleased with it. One thing I’ve disliked about returning home is that there isn’t a lot of opportunity to exercise—while last year I spent a lot of time on my neighbor’s elliptical and running, since I stress fractured my foot, only biking and swimming are available, which are not readily accessible at home. Then again, I’m in season year-round, so it’s also kind of fun not to be exercising extensively right now!
New hair cut! I took 8 inches off.
Now that I have all of this time on my hands, I would love to be sent questions so that I can still talk about Wellesley on this blog, or the transition into Wellesley or out of it :). Please ask me anything you’d like; I’ll give the best answers I can!
Hope everything today goes well, and best wishes,
Monica