Day 2

Favorite moment of the day (besides my nap): During a half hour break, I wandered over to Williston Library. It was the first time I had a moment to myself to explore. I meandered around the stacks looking for Virginia Woolf, but instead I found myself on the fifth floor at the end of a long, dark, completely empty and completely silent section of books, looked to my left, and saw the Emily Dickenson section (which was about five or maybe even more shelves). The book that caught my eye was Emily Dickenson's Letters, an old green hardback with the musty worn look of a much loved book and the beautiful smell of an old college library. I picked it up, found that it was published in 1930, sat in a high backed Victorian chair in one of the corners by the window, and read Emily's letter to a friend from her first month at Mount Holyoke. In it, she described the feeling of being in a really challenging place where nothing less than your best effort would be tolerated. She also, however, described a feeling very akin to my own: She described how she felt very grateful to be there, how lucky she felt that this was the place she left home for instead of any other college, but also how sad it was to be away from her family and her friends. She wrote about the gaggles of sweet ladies she had met, but how she didn't yet have her "few," those go-to girls who knew her intimately and who went beyond the generalized love of this special campus. It was a profound moment for me reading those words. It was such a comfort to know that she felt exactly as I do now, as she sat staring at the very trees and lakes and buildings I stare at now. I thought to myself, this is what makes Mount Holyoke so very special. Every woman who has lived, grown, and flourished here is a part of me now.
So though I haven't yet found those "few," and though home and family are dearly missed, I am inspired, intrigued, enriched, and energized by the environment and possibilities of this magical place, and I can't wait to weave my way into the centuries old tapestry that brings such warmth to the heart of every Mount Holyoke woman, including me.