Junior Banquet: the next day

It’s so hard to believe that it’s over, and I still can’t fully wrap my brain around just how wonderful it was, but thought I’d give you all this to tide you over until I can articulate how wonderful I think our Junior Class is…

I’d rather be…

QV, QV!

I am a proud member of the QVs, one of our tab clubs on campus. And while outside of the Pink Bubble my hat really doesn’t mean a whole lot (unless you’re visiting with wonderful alumnae!), it does mean on campus that current QVs can find a safe haven in my office to share what’s happening and hear old war stories (when you’re a QV, you have to remain a secret during your entire sophomore year).

I was so humbled and honored when I got to know my Great-Great Grandbaby, Amanda W. ’08, who entered in as a freshman the fall I began working here in the office.  She is such a neat young woman in terms of everything she was involved with, in addition to being a caring and loving member of the class of 2008.  She e-mailed me last night to share the research she’s been doing while at grad school, and I am completely blown away (yet again). I really encourage you to check out the article and learn more about what’s she’s up to in terms of her Lupus translational research.

What is the really heart of the matter here, though, isn’t which club you belong to, or what hall you live on, or what you’ll inevitably end up majoring in–it’s about the quality of your character, striving to be the best version of yourself, and making true and honest friends along your journey.

I’m so grateful for my QV family, and my greater SBC family, and for students like Amanda.  What an amazing gift we have here in admissions to see these students come in as girls, and see their transformation into women.

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go.
Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to
new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom.
Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon.
They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints
on our hearts, and we are never ever the same.”
~ Flavia Weedn

Tis a Gift to be Simple, Tis a Gift to be Free…

Gifts. I’ve been thinking a lot about gifts lately. I’m stressing over who I still need to shop for, who offers free shipping, and how do I really get that special something from here to MA without breaking it. Tis the season, and while the overall themes of peace, love, family, and hope are always more important than the presents, the presents always seem to wheedle their way in somehow.

Gifts. I’ve been blessed that in this life I have had the opportunities that not everyone gets, and one of the biggest gifts I ever received was my education here at Sweet Briar. I’ve posted already about how I am a first generation college student, and the tradition and legacy that our founder has left, but I haven’t yet really touched upon what a gift Miss Indy left.

Simple gifts, really. The gift of change. The gift of hope. The gift of chance. We might not be thankful for it right now as we write our fifth final of the week, or trudge up from a parking lot far far away because students forgot to move their cars (they’re studying so hard!), or we come to the realization that plans might have to change because of the impending snow tomorrow (SNOW!). But this gift, the gift of lifelong education, is one of the greatest gifts a person can give themselves. It’s the ability to move forward from where you are right now, and make yourself a little bit better. It’s the chance to see something you want to create, build, make better, and have all the tools at your disposal to achieve that. It’s the start of a life time of learning, and fostering the concepts of hard work, smart thinking, and having fun along the way. It’s granting you access to a legacy that spans over a century, and the good fortune to have access to all those who came before you.

And if your not thankful for it now, and on days I’m not feeling particularly thankful for where I sit in my small little world, I talk to an accepted applicant. We’ve got a bunch of them right now, I have five more to call tonight and congratulate, and  they are so excited about this gift that they’ve received. The anticipation, and hope, and fear of what happens next–it all combines into this incredible moment, and probably one of the purest realizations of what this experience can do for a person. Talk to an accepted applicant, and you’ll fall in love with this place over and over and over again.

This is part of why I love my job, and why I’m often reminded what a gift a Sweet Briar education is. I’m so fortunate to have a real life love affair with JGL (the sicky sweet, makes you want to vomit because they’re so perfectly in love, and he holds her hand and she likes to bake, and won’t they just look so cute on a Holiday Card kind that I HATED when I was single…), but he knows and I self admit that my first honest to god love affair was with Sweet Briar, one that I am proud to say has continued on for ten years now. Part of the reason for that success is that I learn to fall in love all over again when my students fall in love for the first time.

It’s magical, it’s inspirational, and I think it’s what Miss Indy would have wanted.

Tradition

My father loves pranks.  I came home to visit several years ago and he cut out of a magazine these cats that are crossing their legs (looking like they have to pee) and tapped them all around my room.  We belive in different political parties, and during one of the election years he hung his favorite candidate’s picture in the hallway by my room in a nice big frame.  His former boss hates spiders, and so for years he would hang up the fake spider webs in his office.

Mr. R finally retired, and life has not been kind to him during the past decade or so.  Long story short, Mr. R has survived his own bout of cancer (with several long lasting effects including having the nerves in one side of his face severed during a surgery), and watched his wife lose her battle with the retched disease.  So years ago my parents thought it would be funny to drive out to his home, wait until he left, and spider web his entire house.  He and his wife fell for it, hook line and sinker.  The next year, the Parents did the same thing, but added some extra decorations.  The year Mrs. R died, Mr. R insisted they continue to spider web/Halloween the house because, “my whole family expects it now.  Mrs. R would be heartbroken if you didn’t do it.”

It’s tradition now, and I’m never home when they are able to do it–I always seem to be in a different part of New England, or down in VA, or off on another travel adventure.  This year, however, was different.  I was thrilled that after over a decade of pranking, I would be able to finally help out.  Mr. R was thrilled, and neighbor after neighbor stopped to share how much they love the Halloween decorations.  

The funny things about traditions are how they started.  Someone thought that singing songs to one another was fun, so they did it the next year, it became a tradition and now we have what SB calls Step Singings.  A few sophomores gave their seniors gifts throughout the year, and the secret sophomore tradition was born.  My Dad thought he was funny, and a neighborhood depends on my parents to decorate this one house on a busy MA road.

I realize this isn’t a SB specific post, but part of why I love SB is because of all of our quirky traditions.  I suppose this is because my family is full of them as well–I could relate

Happy Spiderwebbing Day!