Oh my goodness.
That is my conclusion after a week-long Final session. Oh my goodness.
So, reading period started off well, you know? Lots of studying, sitting in my room, going out, keeping busy, swimming, everyone’s having fun… and then Monday hits. Well, Sunday actually, when I figured I actually had to figure out what was going on in Chemistry, so I stayed in my room, leaving only for meals, for the entire day (minus swimming, which doesn’t count.) It was extremely boring in that it was very mentally stimulating but still… well, boring. That doesn’t even make sense to me, but I don’t have a better word for it. I walked around the room while reading my notebook, I leaned coolly against the walls, I sat plebianly at the desk, I read upside down, I played around with numerous positions, I annoyed the people underneath me by jumping up and down… and given that I only got through 25 of the lectures out of 36 :). The inefficiency of studying is very amusing.
Then Monday hit. Monday was terrible, because that’s when we could start taking tests (optional test dates, remember? And if anyone is questioning why one would take a test on Monday, let it be known that students actually leave campus early (man, it would have been amazing if I could have done all my work by Monday…) and thus the pressure started. I realized that not only was my chemistry test the next morning (ARG!!), but I wanted to take math the next day, and I wanted to finish (and, well, start) my history essay by Thursday, and though I wrote a rough draft of my writing essay in two hours, that meant I still had about 10 hours to go, and life was getting a little bit stressful. So, essentially, my week has been composed of not talking to anyone, hiding in my room (thank you very much Molly, who is my roommate, because she studies in the science center and lets me have my self-imposed dungeon all to myself) and venturing out for… basically peanut butter and jelly and spinach, really. Not together—I eat pb&j because it’s moderately healthy and more importantly fast (I seem to impose stress-driven time limits on myself), and spinach at least once a day because it seemed to be the most healthy thing I could eat without eating too much of it (the most bang for your buck, nutrient-style. As far as I know, that is. I’m often contradicted on my eclectically-accumulated healthy eating rules.)
So that was Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and actually Thursday and today as well, because I underestimated the amount of time my history essay would take (no surprise there. I always seriously underestimate the time essays will take. I also think I’m doing research essays wrong. More on that later.) Further, since I thought I’d be done by Thursday, I scheduled a bunch of library hours to work on Thursday and Friday, which turned out to be a bit of a bad idea, because now I’m almost busier than I was during finals period. Then again, I served the library very well—it was insanely busy today. Usually I don’t take morning hours, so it’s a surprise to have staff members running around and things actually happening. Also, this is a very busy time for the library, because everyone’s returning stuff. I literally spent 2 ½ hours this morning nonstop checking in books, with Carolyn and Laura sorting the books after I’d checked them in. That is a huge volume of books, being returned 5-10 at a time by people who came in every 5 minutes or so, with interruptions by patrons who needed normal things, like a laptop reservation or help finding something, and then normal task lists and such. Further, during finals period people seem to pick up after themselves less, so there are a bunch of books lying all over the place that students don’t want to put back, so we have to check them all in in case they actually borrowed them, and then sort them all over again. I’m not complaining about the students—I totally get it, and the pressure of lack of time. Everyone seems to get it, and the college in general treats us very kindly during this period, which I don’t think happens in too many other places, and I kind of forgot to appreciate it. But now that I think of it, I do :). I received presents from my blog party, food from our worker appreciation party for the library, and lots of stickers and colored paper and recycled paper snowflakes from the library’s study break sessions (they also have graffiti walls—strips of paper placed on columns with crayons available—surprisingly, or perhaps not so much, they are now filled with large expressions of stress expounded through a few choice swear words ;). Cazenove Hall has also had several stress breaks (food. Cheese and whine, to be precise) (oh, and pretzels. This week seems to have been my pretzel-craving week—I usually don’t like them that much), and there’s sympathetic if time-stropped students and adults running around everywhere. (The adults are actually sitting, and calm, and sympathetic. It’s refreshing.) As you can see, I’m perhaps still not over the stress yet ;). I’m just noticing how long this paragraph is getting, and with much rambling and less formatting than I usually do (which is somewhat sparse to begin with :)). Ah well. I always thought it was funny when people had trouble formulating their thoughts or struggled to speak eloquently after tests, blaming it on the stress of having to be eloquent during the test. I thought that since the skills were just executed, they’d be fresh and thus people were just were just happy to have something to blame. I still believe it, but looking at this meandering spill of word goop, I’m kind of questioning the concept :).
Oh yes, I totally forgot! Before I go on with the rest of the week, CONGRATS TO WELLESLEY CLASS OF 2016!!! I can’t wait to see you guys next year! (Well, I won’t recognize you, but if you say hi-I-know-you-from-the-swimming-and-lab-pictures-because-you-keep-on-forgetting-to-take-any-others then I’ll be enthusiastic! Actually, I’ll be enthusiastic anyway, because I’ll be a sophomore next year. And that’s darn odd, because I just got to college and everything, and it’s so weird that everyone has to go through this whole stressful adjustment process individually and learn everything about Wellesley again that everyone who’s here already knows… it’d be much easier if we could just transfer our experiences to you and you could be Wellesley girls from the start. Cumulative sharing, that’s what we’ll have. Class of 2016, just wait a few hundred years before you come until we get that collective memory thing sorted out. The idea originated a couple hundred years ago… we’ve only got a couple hundred more years left, right?
Anyway, congrats though :). I know you guys (girls) all worked like crazy to be able to get here, and for the early decisioners the admissions process is over! Plus you get to go to college, which is awesome especially in concept, and there’s so much to look forward to. Of course, you need to finish through the year, but hopefully every day is more exciting because you know what’s to come! Everyone should feel that way, whatever they are doing, though I know that’s not true for many, many people…
I digress though :). I want to note a few more things about my week before I talk more about Wellesley college in general. So, for the details in my tests and essays! (‘cause I know you’re so interested ;P). First of all, I’d like to say that my Writing essay was the fastest essay I have ever written. After going to that talk with the New Yorker people (so, so cool), and after I sat down and beasted the thing out, I sent it to my professor to see what drastic changes I needed to make. It was a personal paper, which means I don’t need any sources (major score) and I get to write about myself for two hours… which, wait, I do every week ;). So I sent it to her and she told me it was done. ?!?!?!?! Yes, a teacher told me that my first draft essay was done. Either my writing has gotten better or I just experienced a miracle. (Probably a bit of both, actually ;). I don’t think it will happen again.)
On the other hand, my history paper took three days longer than I thought it would. I reread my class notes, wrote an outline, checked in with my professor to make sure the outline worked, wrote the essay in two hours, and have since spent more than 8 hours source hunting. Source hunting, I must say, is a very, very long process. Essentially, what happened is I wrote the paper backwards. I took the notes from class (where our professor summarized and analyzed the primary readings we did for homework) and wrote a paper based on that information. Then I had to actually figure out where that information came from. LONGEST PROCESS EVER. (False, but I feel like exaggerating.) So, I basically reread all my primary documents (the highlighted parts only, thank goodness. Except I’m not super good at highlighting, since I highlight the main points in a paragraph, which means that I usually highlight about a fifth of the page.) and searched for individual pieces of information. For example, I had written in my notes: “Indian thinkers turned toward a desire for a self-sufficient government.” Okay, that one doesn’t take too long to find—you look for specific Indian thinkers, and then go crazy searching for the word “self” because the words they actually use are “self-reliant.” (I have never been more grateful to control-F. I have used the Find function so many times that when I open a book I attempt to use the control-F function. Google books is awesome because it actually has the function—I love real books, but it’s so much easier to do research when everything is digitized…) Then you get to something like “the democratic process failed the Indian poor.” And you need to find someone who explicitly says that. In approximately 40 packets of paper. I had to give up on that one—I couldn’t find it.
So that was my history essay, which I finished an hour ago, which is why this post is late ;). Ps, like I said, I’m totally doing the source-hunting wrong. I checked out a bunch of the other papers that were turned in, and they only had, like 5-10 footnotes. I had 55. Silly first year who has no idea what is “general knowledge” and so cites EVERYTHING…
As for the tests (math and chem), one went badly, the other went well. Can you guess? I actually studied almost as much for math as I did for chem (this is a big deal. I study and work insanely for chem.), but I did much worse. I still don’t know if I’m allowed to say anything about the test (though everyone is done taking it by now,) but that was tough one. Personally, I was just kind of shell-shocked after the test, and went straight to the sports center so I wouldn’t have to study but didn’t have to talk to anyone (pool was closed—I had to do a running workout), but I saw some tears. However, I did hear one person say one of her tests was easier than expected. So I know it happens that tests can be easy. Well, chem was pretty easy, in that it didn’t through any new applications of ideas at us. Our professor had told us it was going to be easier than the midterms though. (Conversation in class: “I have bad and good news. Do you want the bad news or the good news first?” Class chorus: “Bad news.” Professor Arumainayagam: “Well, the final is going to be less mentally stimulating than the midterms.” “…What?” It was great.)
And now I am done with all the craziness mostly! I still have to figure out how I’m getting to the airport tomorrow (there aren’t a lot of people left on campus anymore, so I’m one of the later ones to leave), which involves, I believe, taking the commuter rail to South Station and then taking the subway to the airport. That confuses me very much. Where is the commuter rail, what is the commuter rail, what do I do at South Station, what time does this thing run on, who do I pay, arg? I am not an experienced transportation user at all. I’m not very good at driving, I can bike and run and swim and stuff, but public transportation baffles me. Well, I’d better figure it out by tomorrow. It’s on the (getting longer) list!
Also on my list are the SEQs (student evaluation questionnaires) which are due on Sunday otherwise I don’t get grades (I’ve been sent 5 reminders to do them already…) and organizing my stuff (it’s all over the floor in my room. I’m not usually this messy, but with Molly having gone home already and with doing crazy footnotes in the early hours of the morning (I know, I know, it’s not good for me, but I was on a roll with my footnoting. Yes, you can be on a roll with footnoting. It was about as exciting as it sounds.)) Also, I haven’t done laundry in a while, and I have to pack. Also, pack for Hawaii (yay! Swimming training trip!), and clean the room, and make a Christmas and birthday present, and other odd things. At least some of it will be fun: I actually can get really into organizing if I have the time. I organized my computer yesterday (everything’s in neat folders with corresponding names. I am so, so pleased. I used it as a study break, because the history was eating me.), and I was getting pretty perfectionistic with the library books. Thankfully, it seems I can turn it off when I get overloaded with bulk material. Which happens a lot, also thankfully.
Okay, so I totally meant for this to be a short post, given all that I’m supposed to be doing (also, dinner. I’m hungry. I’m also kind of hesitant to keep on subsisting on cliff bars and orange juice. … ps, I feel like my college diet is kind of irregular… even for college kids… the healthy/bad eating thing is a weird mix…), but I definitely wanted to get to a conversation I had with a dormmate. I’m not naming her (ha! I don’t have to say her or him. Because it’s an all-girls school. I can’t believe this still surprises me.) because she’s not sure about it, but she’s thinking of transferring. She also made me think about first semester and life here on a longer-scale basis, which I hadn’t done for a while. So.
This friend thinks she might want to transfer to Columbia, because of several reasons (I made her make a list. Lists are nice.)
- Nothing around.
- Far from home.
- Lack of community.
- Wants club choice instead of only varsity sports.
- Misc. reasons that I unfortunately forget.
And here are my responses.
For 1., in that we’re far from Boston (40 mins away), and that it takes time to get anywhere: know what you want. Wellesley makes it fairly easy to get to Boston, in that there’s a regular and cheap busing system with good hours. However, it still takes time to get into Boston, and if that is going to be a problem for you, you should consider that now. As this friend said, she wanted to be able to do something if she only had an hour to waste, while here it takes practically an hour to get to anywhere in Boston. I agree with that statement, and it makes sense to go to a city school if that’s something you need. Personally, I love that we’re in a small, sheltered area that offers the possibility of a city without actually being surrounded by it. I do sometimes wish that the busing was a bit easier, especially to Target, but Amazon.com will do amazing things if you only want to get out to buy food and clothing. And I find that there’s a lot to do on campus, what with the lectures and extra-school activities and clubs and organizations and swimming and school and friends. So I like it here, and the distance from Boston does not bother me. But you should be aware.
2. Far from home. Yes, Wellesley is likely far from your home, and again, if this is a priority for you, you should definitely be aware. I’m mentioned how close Tiffany is with her family; I don’t think she would be doing as well as she is here if she didn’t have that 15-minute away connection. It was definitely tough for me in the beginning being away from home. But like I’m mentioned in previous posts, I was encouraged to be away from home at a young age. I don’t really know how to say this properly, but while I enjoy being home, I definitely like it here. I think that the college environment would not be half as fun as it is if I lived with my family, and I value the greater independence I have here. In other words, I’m happier being in college without my family than being in high school with my family. That’s nothing against my family or high school, who I love and which I enjoyed. But I think that finding a place a little bit distant from your family is a necessary part of growing up, and it’s something I’m ready for now rather than later or earlier. (I say earlier because I know there are people who would have been happier away from home during high school. We all have our timelines.)
3. Lack of community. I’d have to disagree here. My friend said that Wellesley doesn’t have as great a community as other schools, but I love it here. I can talk to anyone, we all live on a small campus, the faculty mostly live nearby, there’s Wellesley apparel everywhere, everyone is kind to one another… I don’t know what really makes up “community,” but I feel a part of one. I think swimming also has a lot to do with it, but our experiences of “community” will obviously differ based on what we’re involved in.
4. Club sports instead of only varsity sports. I agree! We need more club sports. There should be an institutionalized club sport for swimming for those who don’t make the varsity team. I think it’s a very good idea to provide sports with less of a time commitment than varsity sports, and for varying levels.
- My encouragement to her was to look very hard at Columbia before transferring. Not only is there the application process (it is an Ivy. You have to get in.), but there’s the whole readjustment process all over again, making new friends, figuring out a new system, feeling comfortable in a new place. Also, at every school there’s going to be something you don’t like. Maybe Columbia doesn’t have the sense of community she’s looking for. Maybe having her family close makes up for it. I don’t know. I know when you’re in high school it’s really hard to understand what you want, but keep a few priorities in mind when you choose. For me, my top priority was academics. I wanted a name school (lots of resources), small class sizes, and great professors. I went searching for that, knew that I didn’t care about distance from home, size of the school, or many other elements that others cared about, and applied here, visited, and loved it. You don’t need to know exactly what you’re looking for—if you did you wouldn’t need to go to college in the first place, but that’s my recommendation—know a few things about what you want. My counselor had me fill out a packet of what I wanted, and most of it I didn’t use at all. It did teach me that I valued diversity in the students (There’s so much diversity here. It’s awesome), but a lot of it I was ambiguous on. Just keep a few things in mind, get accepted, and you’re all set 😉 (College application process in one sentence there ;). If only if were that easy :)).
Funnily enough, I’m only realizing all this stuff after it’s become irrelevant for this year’s seniors. Things take time, and I should know by now :). Well, I meant to spend an hour on this, and I’ve spent more than two. I just can’t help myself, though I feel calmer now. Espousing on my great bank of newfound knowledge seems to calm me, how… I want to say ironic, except it’s just kind of amusing. :). Well, I really do need to go now, so I’ll sign off. I’ll be posting during Wintersession, and if I don’t spam me!
Feel free to spam me anyway (I’d love to hear from you!)
Monica
ps, I have no pictures. This was a squirrel I saw a few weeks ago with an entire candy bar in its mouth. We have ambitious squirrels.
