According to my countdown app, today marks my 90th day on the Wellesley campus! It’s a little weird to think about that; ninety days ago I packed up all of my stuff from Hotel Wellesley and rode a bus for ten minutes to reach my home for the next four years. It definitely wasn’t the beginning I had imagined at all- although I don’t know if anything about this year has been the way anyone imagined it would be. It’s been 95 days since I left Iowa, and in 29 days I’ll be back there again. A lot has changed in those 95 days, and Iowa and I are both quite a bit different than we were back in August.
My dad has already started planning for my trip home; he’s picking me up early in the morning on December 18th, and then we’re going to drive home through New York CIty- I want to see the Christmas tree!- before arriving back in Iowa late in the afternoon on December 19th. My first full day back home will be December 20th, which also happens to be my 19th birthday! I’ll get to spend the day baking, cuddling with my cats, and watching Christmas movies, which sounds pretty perfect to me.
In the meantime, I’m trying to learn as much as I can in the time I have left here this semester. This term my classes are American Politics and Calc 1. Neither of these are courses I originally signed up for when registering for classes, but the good thing about the term system is that I had the opportunity to change my registration after first term to classes that fit my new idea of what I want to study and do with my life, instead of going through a full semester of four courses that didn’t really pertain to the direction I’m going in. I’ve also somehow ended up only having classes two days a week, which has absolutely killed my productivity; I feel like everyday except for Tuesday and Friday is the weekend, and I’m always so reluctant to do my work on those days. I think some of it might be the stress fatigue I’ve been dealing with about the COVID situation at home; either way, I’m really going to need to step up my productivity big time, and do it fast- it’s midterm season! I have a test in math tomorrow to study for tonight and a midterm paper getting assigned in poli sci tomorrow afternoon, and I can’t expect good results if I don’t put the work in. I’m very grateful that I’m still shadowgraded this term, but I’m going to try not to take advantage of it too much; it’s there to catch me if I slip, but I’d really like to come out of this term with predicted grades I’m proud of.
In other news, the Spring Course Browser opens up in six days and I have drafted myself a rough plot of what I would like my schedule to look like; I don’t know what classes I’ll be taking since they haven’t been posted yet, but I’ve decided on which departments I’d like to take classes from. Since I didn’t take my First Year Writing Course this fall, I’ll be taking it next semester; they haven’t sent out our enrollments yet, but I’m really hoping for “Hoaxes and Conspiracies”! I’m also interested in taking a First Year Seminar in the spring; my favorite one is “What is Truth?”, which looks at the concepts of truth and fact from across a bunch of different disciplines. For my other classes, I’ve been trying to decide whether I want to use them to figure out my major, finish some of my distribution requirements, or both; I’m currently thinking I’ll go with figuring out my major, and I want to take a class from each of the three departments I’m seriously considering a major in: Economics, Political Science, and Education. I’m technically taking a political science class right now, but the Wellesley Political Science Department is divided into four different disciplines, and while the class I’m taking is part of the American Politics track, I’m more interested in the Political Theory track. Updates to come on what I actually sign up for!
There’s also big news from the Pommunity this week- we’re ordering sweatshirts! I’ll put a picture of the design below- created by fourth and fifth floor RA Alex! We’re also doing a creativity exchange right now organized by Caroline, our HP, which is sort of like a handmade non-holiday affiliated Secret Santa. I’m knitting a shawl for my person, which will hopefully be completed by the end of the day tomorrow, when we have to deliver our gifts. Our House Council meetings have transitioned to being fully virtual as it gets colder, which is a little bit sad but very necessary. Zoom HOCO also really isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be; I still feel really connected to everyone even when we aren’t sitting in a circle together outside. My blockmate Alexandra and I have been tuning in together from the Pom Morning Room, and Anushe the second floor RA said that we were “friendship goals”; I 100% agree.
The Pom sweatshirt- look how cute it is!
As Wellesley gets colder, I’ve been bundling up more and more, hence the header image! Last night, my blockmate Anastasija and I did a yoga workout for her virtual PE class and then decided we were too lazy to change back into warmer clothes before walking across the campus to Bates for dinner- big mistake! I’m only slightly exaggerating when I say that it was a miracle we got back to Pom without our fingers falling off; it also didn’t help that we were both carrying a cup of ice cream. Needless to say, I remembered my hat and mittens when we went to Late Night at Lulu later on. We spent an hour thawing out in the Morning Room and watching a documentary for her First Year Writing Course before I was even willing to stand up. I will not be making the same mistake again.
I hope you’re all having a great week, and I hope it gets even better from here! Tower had chocolate chip pancakes this morning, which means that today will be a good day for me, and I’m sending those vibes to you, too! Stay grounded, and focus on the best parts of life right now; there’s always something to be grateful for!
Sending you joy,
A
P.S. Any guesses on where the title is from? A hint- the song is sung by a very popular frog and bear duo!