Hey readers.
It has been a long ride.
I applied for the Wellesley Admissions Blogger job during Orientation Week of first year, and I’ve been writing it every since. 175 posts and something like 250,000 words later… here we are. End of the Class of 2015’s undergraduate education. Commencement on Friday, final transcript out last Friday. On my resume, a neat summary of my work; on LinkedIn, the final time I’ll adjust my college GPA. It feels amazing.
This past week, I’ve been hanging out with Tiffany, Gabby, Emily, part of the swim team, some of my science friends, people I know from different contexts; people I have sorted into different boxes that border the topics we usually discuss. There are so many acquaintances who I’ll never know outside those boxes; so many friends about whom I only know one or two dimensions. There are few friends, too, whose reactions rarely surprise me, whose myriad stories I can tell almost as well as mine. There is a community of people who know me, have cared about me, have helped me, and I’m not seeing them in these last few days; we’re all just moving on with our lives without saying goodbye. But I’m terrible at saying goodbye anyway—what do you say? Thank you so much for the summation of our shared experiences— for the actions that made us friends, for the thoughts that make you interesting, for living life with me?
Wellesley has been very, very kind to me. I have incredible mentors. I have incredible friends. I have had great financial aid. I have had a wonderful MIT experience and an astounding research experience. I swam on the varsity swim and dive team for two years, I did track my first year, I tutored, I blogged, went to Nicaragua; who knows what else. I applied for things, was rejected from things, was accepted to things. I figured out what I wanted to do in the future and was gifted with the experience to prepare for it. I took a whole bunch of classes, with some mediocre teachers, with mostly enthusiastic, wonderful teachers, and with some outstanding, life-changing teachers. People care here and people are passionate here, and the whole community has welcomed me, has sheltered me as well as sent me out to explore new experiences. Wellesley has been the home I have come back to for a long time, and one I suspect I will never quite leave.
Thank you for reading, readers. Every time I hear about one of you, every time someone tells me that they take the time out of their day to read about my thoughts and life: that delight is something I hold onto very tightly. Thank you for reading, and I hope you have found something useful over the years.
As of Friday, I will no longer be a Wellesley undergraduate. I can hardly believe it, and yet I am excited more than anything else. I’ll be at MIT over the summer, probably the Philippines in September, and Cambridge, UK, in October. After that, who knows.
If you’re not done with me yet, I’ll be blogging weekly at Monica’s Blog, a shiny new personal blog I’ve put together. My old posts will still be archived at Wellesley Admissions.
Thank you, Wellesley College. I’ve come out a different, smarter, more self-cognizant, more aware, more caring, better person than I came in, and I will always be grateful.
Bye, readers :). Thank you for the summation of our experiences.
Monica
