Salvete omnes!
Today was a simply lovely fall day. It was finally cold enough for me to break out my new vest and cute new shirt (complements of my Columbus Day weekend shopping extravaganza), which I was very excited about. I got my Montserrat midterm back and I’m proud to say that I got the job done, even though I was anxiously anticipating going home a few hours after I took the exam!
This morning was a bit stressful, since I had to get up to finish a lot of work (I go through phases of procrastination — most of the time I’m great about getting work done, but sometimes…not so much). This afternoon it was a relief to relax and hang out with the girls. Best of all, I decided to take a walk around campus because the sun is shining and it’s just plain beautiful out. I really soaked in the changing leaves and, as always, wondered just how I found myself here at Holy Cross. I suppose for you graduating seniors, it’s a tale worth telling.
In junior year of high school, when the “college stuff” really started to heat up, I began to realize that I was most likely going to study something Latin-related. The more challenging my Latin class became, the more I fell in love with the language- its logic, its ingenuity, and the pure dedication it took to get a translation right all fascinated and inspired me, as they do to this day. A trip to Italy in the summer before senior year sealed the deal. Ironically, the professor who led my Italy trip is a visiting professor here for the year! Figuring out I was heading toward studying Classics gave me a great advantage and allowed me to narrow down schools with really fantastic reputations for Classics- Holy Cross included.
Holy Cross was the first school I visited. As you know, I absolutely fell in love with it, so that every school I visited after helped strengthen my love for this place. I discerned innumerable reasons for wanting to go here through visiting other schools (all ranging in size, religious tradition or lack thereof, and location), and in doing so I narrowed down Holy Cross as the only school I could see myself spending my college years. My mom could see it in my eyes — they lit up at Holy Cross. Nowhere else did that happen.
A lot of my decision had to do with feeling — how I felt on campus, how I felt about the students I met, how I felt about my academic future, and so on. My gut told me to go with Cross. My advice to those in the difficult position of narrowing down a school is to go with your gut as best you can. Don’t let names and reputations get in the way of a blissful four years as an undergrad.
I’m off to dinner! Valete!