Good morning readers 🙂
Oh dear, you know you’re in trouble if I’m already breaking out the smileys so early in this post! I can’t help it; Wellesley is such a lovely place. I even have an anecdote to share with you to illustrate.
A few days ago, I was planning to buy my bus tickets to New York City and Hanover for spring break. As I sat down at my desk, looking at a Word document I had created a few days earlier with all seven of the possible bus schedules highlighted, I reached into my wallet for my debit card… and found it missing. I checked the room and all of my pockets, called my bank for a replacement card (only to be told that I needed the number on the debit card to get the card replaced), and was finally able to buy the tickets after calling my parents and using their credit card. With just minutes to spare, I then ran off to watch Tiffany’s swim lesson, go to track practice, go to weights, and then to class until 10pm.
Yesterday night, I received an email from a name I didn’t know. Someone had turned in twenty dollars and my debit card, found in my sports jacket that I turned in at the end of track. Both were now waiting for me at the Sports Center’s front desk.
… I don’t even know what to say! My hometown was a very ethical place, but I have never received lost money back. Wellesley’s honor code allows me to leave my backpack at the Science Center with the knowledge that a student won’t steal it, allows all of us to take tests without supervision, and allows instances like this one where someone returned a debit card and twenty dollars. For those of you considering colleges, I highly recommend visiting Wellesley. I wasn’t sold until I got here—then I experienced the community, and called home my first day informing my parents that this was it.
The girls here are wonderful. Yesterday night was my Bio 112 lab, and we were doing gel electrophoresis (me for the first time!) At one point during the lab, I panicked because I spilled ink all over the place, and was forcing the pipette on Veronica since she knew what she was doing. She told me to calm down and try again, that this was the time to practice, that I just needed to push the DNA down a little deeper and come in at an angle. She was right, and I did it well from there.
Yesterday I received a package from my aunt and cousins in California. They had sent, unrequested, a lovely note and five boxes of girl scout cookies. I shared them with my labmates, who enjoyed them thoroughly, and am bringing the survivors to track practice, where I am sure they will be appropriately demolished. The track girls are as friendly and welcoming as they were my first day, and I am enjoying track more and more.
You know how I was going to spend our week-long Spring Break, which starts at the end of class today, alone here? Turns out, two families offered to host me, and I am now spending three days in NYC with Nathalie and five days in Hanover, NH with Ika, Annie, and Zoe. Before I found families to stay with, I was told I could work in Professor A’s lab over the break and was planning a trip with Chemistry 120 friends to go into Boston together. All I did was send out a few emails; look at all the kindness around me.
School too is going well, with many meeting with professors and students alike to work on projects. My singing teacher approves of me, my track coach is incredibly flexible with my schedule, and I am surrounded by hardworking, interesting people. Professor Buchholtz tells me that college looks especially wonderful in retrospect, but I’m finding it wonderful now.
Hope you all have a great Friday. I need to go work in Professor A’s lab now, so I will finish here, but I wish you all a superb weekend!
Best,
Monica
