Today was my last Wellesley move-in day. I watched Knives Out with my friend Alison (you can see the Wellesley campus from some shots!) and ate dinner with friends who were abroad last fall. I hadn’t seen them since December 2021, before I went to the Galapagos, but it felt so normal to be chatting over dining hall food again.
Now it’s Sunday evening, and I’m back in the Shafer living room. Only one other table is occupied. I hear laughter and doors slamming and footsteps in the rooms above me. As a light snow-slash-rain turns the sidewalks into a slippery hazard, this is it: the start of my last semester at Wellesley. Because of the pandemic and my semester and a half spent abroad, this will be my first full spring term. From now, which is clearly still winter, four months seems so long. Crew season will start—indoors at first, then outdoors. I’ll have my first spring break training trip. Green will return to the trees, flowers will bloom, and by the time it actually feels like spring, I’ll be trading my finals for a cap and gown.
But I’m not getting sappy or anything.
This will be my first semester without a job, other than keeping up this blog. I’m excited to take things slower and let my classwork marinate a little more. I’m currently enrolled in 4.5 credits and I only need 3.5 more to graduate, so I might drop a course, or I might keep them all for the sake of learning cool stuff.
My Mondays will be full with three classes: Anthropological Perspectives on Latin America (for fun); Conflict Transformation in Theory and Practice (for my major), and Black Diaspora, Political Experiences in Pandemics (because I need a 300-level and it’s a writing intensive course). On Tuesdays and Fridays, I only have Philosophy of Language (for fun). I’m also doing the required half-credit independent study for my major. And I’ll be free all day on Wednesdays! In the past, I’ve filled my no-class days with long work shifts, so I’m looking forward to getting work done in the middle of the week and having less to do on the weekends. But with my first spring racing season on the horizon, I won’t set my hopes too high.
Me and the puppy, who’s growing up so fast!