Hello, future students of Wellesley College!
Waving hello to all of you from right outside Pom- shoutout to my blockmate Alexandra for taking the picture!
My name is Andy, and I’m a first year here at Wellesley, hailing from the great state of Iowa (fellow Midwesterners, please make some noise in the comments). I currently have absolutely no idea what I want to major in, but I’m very excited to start exploring, and I’ll be sure to bring all of you along with me as I figure it out!
I won’t lie, I’m just a little bit star struck at the prospect of writing for this blog. Not too long ago, I was on the other side of it. I basically spent the entire month of November last year on the computer, flipping tabs between old blog entries and my Wellesley admission portal, just in case Wellesley randomly decided to upload my admission decision super early (patience is definitely a virtue, but it’s not one I think I’ll ever possess). Reading the blog really helped me to focus on the positive side of the big “what if” I was facing, and I hope that my blog can do that for some of you, too!
Three weeks ago I was sitting in my garage writing a very rough draft of this post while my dad cleaned out our car in preparation for the long drive to Massachusetts. Since then, I’ve spent four days in a hotel quarantine, lived on Wellesley’s campus for almost three weeks, attended almost two full weeks of college classes, and tested negative for COVID-19 at least ten times! As you read this, I’m very happily settled into my room on the first floor of Pomeroy Hall, probably listening to the Bee Gees and finishing up the last of my poetry homework, walking over to East Side to grab dinner at Bates with my blockmates, taking an early morning stroll in the woods behind Lake Waban, or maybe sitting in Houghton Memorial Chapel taking notes on the intersection of culture and humor for my anthropology class.
Whatever I’m doing, I’m sure it will be interesting and important and exciting, because I’ll be doing it at Wellesley, and Wellesley isn’t the kind of place where things that aren’t interesting, important, and exciting happen. I could probably fill a whole book with the reasons I chose Wellesley (and I’ll definitely be filling at least a post soon, including the story of my completely disastrous and utterly life changing first campus visit last summer, which I hope you’ll all look forward to reading!), but for now I think I’ll leave you with a quote from one of the videos on the Wellesley 100 playlist: “Wellesley is a place where I can be who I want to be, and that changes. Often.” I really think that sums it all up.
I’m so excited for my first year at Wellesley (no matter how unconventional it may end up being!) and I hope that in my exploration of all things Wellesley, some of you will decide it’s a place that you want to explore, too!
Good luck to all of you starting school in the coming weeks, especially the seniors! I know this probably isn’t the senior year you’d hoped for, but I hope you’re able to keep your chin up and keep smiling in the face of it. This isn’t exactly how I imagined starting my college career, but everyday I’m finding new ways to be grateful for the work being done to ensure that my experience is every bit as exciting and wonderful as those of the Wellesley siblings who came before me. I hope you all can find similar things to be grateful for in your own lives!
Stay strong, and remember to wear a mask!
A
One thing I’m very grateful for is sunsets on Lake Waban; I took this picture for my grandma while taking a socially distanced post-dinner lake walk with some of my blockmates this weekend!