September. 21, 2008

My First Weeks at Holy Cross

Hello, or Salvete (hello in Latin) to everyone, and thank you for taking the time to read this blog of my first year at Holy Cross! I’m thrilled to have this opportunity, and hope to give you an interesting insider’s view into what a Holy Cross first-year student experiences.

As my introduction tells, I was an Early Decision candidate to Holy Cross. For those of you who don’t quite know how that works (I know I wasn’t sure at the beginning of the college application process), Early Decision allows a student to legally bind themselves to an institution upon acceptance. I would recommend it only if you are absolutely, 100% sure that a college is for you, and not all colleges even offer the option. However, I was one of those people who knew, deep down, that Holy Cross was where I wanted to spend my college years. Hopefully, through this blog, you can get a sense of whether this gorgeous — and I do mean GORGEOUS — campus is for you, too!   

My first few weeks here at the Cross have been a wonderful, sometimes stressful, blur. On August 30, 2008, at 3:30 a.m., my family packed my life into our van and made the five-hour trek from Drexel Hill, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia, to Worcester. It was a terribly rainy, humid day, but seeing Holy Cross still thrilled me beyond belief. We hardly had to lift a finger when we pulled up to Mulledy Hall, my dorm, because so many upperclassmen were on deck to help out. I even saw President McFarland carrying boxes up;  when I figured out who he was later, I realized how many times I passed him without saying anything. Oops!

The event that stands out most in my mind from my first week at Holy Cross is the Mass of the Holy Spirit, the mass which is celebrated the evening of move-in Day. Although I was incredibly hot and tired, I specifically remember the entrance hymn, "All Are Welcome." As the faculty processed into the Hart Center in their academic gear, and upperclassmen swirled banners of ribbons around us, I truly felt that I was welcome at Holy Cross. Throughout Gateways Orientation, I felt this same sense of belonging. The faculty and students did a wonderful job of acclimating us to college life, and continue to do so even now, weeks into the semester.  I’ve also met so many fun and interesting friends in my short time here. The girls on my hall are so sweet and funny, and through classes and working at Kimball Dining Hall I’ve met even more people.

By the end of Gateways, I was definitely ready to jump into classes. Since I am a declared classics major, I take Latin and Greek. My Latin class, Horace: Odes, is full of upperclassmen; because I’ve taken Latin for so long, I tested into a 300-level class. It has been both exhilarating and stressful — it’s a lot of work, but the fact that I’m swimming and not sinking in such a difficult class feels great. I’m also taking Introduction to Philosophy, and my Montserrat seminar is Memory and the Past in Ancient Greece. If you can’t tell, I’m a humanities kind of girl.

I have so much more to tell about my experience so far at Holy Cross, and I can’t wait to see what the coming months will entail. Please stay tuned to see how my year unfolds!