Hello! I’m Sarah, your friendly neighborhood admissions blogger. Some quick facts: I’m a senior, an English and Creative major and Psychology minor, and a resident of Severance Hall. I’m a member of the Wellesley News, Wellesley College TV, and Knit Happens, among a few other things. I’m in the weeds of my senior thesis, interning at the Admissions Office, and busy adjusting to being back on campus after spending my full junior year abroad.
That’s the boring stuff out of the way. You’ll be learning a lot more about me as I write a blog post every week (ahhh) for the rest of the year. Let’s start with the Wellesley stuff I’ve missed the most during my year away.
- The lake! Lake Waban is the huge, beautiful lake right on campus that you might remember from approximately every piece of admissions material you’ve seen. The trail that wraps around it is my favorite place on campus, and I walk it at least once a week. The fall leaves are already beginning to turn to fall colors and I’m stupidly happy about it. I’m absolutely going to turn into one of those New Englanders who think that “leaf peeping” counts as a cool hobby. Look forward to definitely seeing some pics on this blog.
- My friends. (Don’t tell them I stuck them under the lake.) Despite a full year of separation, it feels like time has barely passed. My fellow Wellesley News editors filled me in on all the inside jokes I missed while I was away (we’re all now obsessed with Timothée Chalamet, for some reason?). My weekly Last Week Tonight ritual with my friend has resumed. Some folks from my first-year mentor group are still, incredibly, hanging out regularly in our senior year. With graduation looming on the horizon, it’s good to know that these bonds can survive a little time and distance.
- The constant free food. I am not ashamed! My study abroad program required me to pay for my own food like I was a proper adult or something. Cooking for yourself can be fun, sure, but having unlimited amounts of food available all day, in the same building as my dorm? Including baked goods that are made every day by an on-campus bakery that’s about a hundred yards away from my dining hall? Big improvement. It’s like a never-ending bake sale that takes place in my house and everything is included in tuition. It would be financially irresponsible not to snack! (Health-wise, this may not be the best long term perspective.)
- The Hoop. How do they make microwave nachos taste so incredible? Their dedication to providing cheap food to hungry students until 1:00 in the morning is inspiring, and on behalf of cranky late night scholars everywhere, I salute them.
- My short story class, take two. I’m talking more about classes in the next entry, but this one deserves its own space. I took Short Narratives 203 in my first semester at Wellesley and it was one of my absolute favorite academic experiences here. I had never been in a class where writing and workshopping were actually taken seriously before. Creative writing classes can be taken twice, so I thought, why not start my final year the same way as the first? Re-experiencing the class has highlighted how I’ve changed and grown as a writer, in ways both illuminating and anxiety-inducing (remembering some of the nonsense I wrote three years ago is … not fun). My professor, who has/is teaching both iterations of the course, is now both my major adviser and my creative writing thesis adviser.
- The classes. (My parents would probably prefer it if this were a little higher on the list.) My narrative identity psychology class is currently focused on mermaids, which I definitely did not expect but am also definitely enjoying. My stats class isn’t that hard and–I’ll level with you–that is basically all I ask for from my math and science classes. My literary criticism course looks at literature in a way that’s completely different from anything that I’ve taken in the English department, which is exactly what I wanted.
So that’s your snapshot of what my first month back at Wellesley has been like. Check in next week to find out if we’re still talking about mermaids in psych.