Salvete, omnes!
If I was in love with Holy Cross before this weekend, now I’m pretty sure that I would like to marry it. After the seemingly endless weeks and months of wind, rain, and cold, Worcester has finally shown us its good side. It’s currently 80 degrees out and sunny, which is exactly what this entire weekend has been like. And to top it all off, this weekend is also Spring Weekend, which is (in my limited first-year opinion) one of the best times I have ever had on campus. Spring Weekend is a celebration of the school year coming to an end, and boy can Holy Cross celebrate. Saturday morning, there was a fair on Easy Street with all sorts of games, fake-tattooing, cotton candy, and sunshine galore. In the afternoon was an insane soap-box derby right outside of Mulledy, for which a huge crowd settled themselves on the lawns of Easy Street and had a blast booing and cheering on the contestants.
Later on that day was a free barbeque and carnival on the Hart lawn, which I actually had to work for my last Kimball shift. Even though it was really hot and I just wanted to be at the carnival climbing fake rock walls and doing human bowling, I was glad to help Kimball put on this fun event. I even got a bit of extra Captain-training when I helped to unload a couple trucks in Kimball’s storeroom—invaluable experience I’ll definitely hold on to and use when I become a Captain next year. After the barbeque and carnival was an awesome fireworks show on Hart lawn. I watched it with my Classics buddies and upperclassmen friends (two of whom are graduating, oh no!) and had a blast ooing and aahing at the show. It was the perfect end to a lovely day of celebration.
However, the fun and games are (pretty much) over and I have a ten-page paper to write for my final in Montserrat by Friday. The outline is complete and I already went to talk to him about it, and my idea is workable—I just need to muster up the willpower to write the darn thing. Unfortunately, we had our last Montserrat class on Friday, and everyone was genuinely disappointed that this class had to end. I would venture a guess that our Montserrat class is one of the only ones in any cluster that was honestly disappointed at a class being cancelled, or that actually enjoyed being in class every day. It was one of the most interesting experiences of my life, and without even realizing it my ability to analyze literature and art carefully and purposefully has drastically improved. I just don’t look at a book the same way anymore, and I think that is exactly what Professor Joseph intended.
Finals are just around the corner and a bunch of interesting events are coming up, so expect updates soon! Enjoy the day, everyone! Valete et carpe diem!
P.S. A little lesson in Latin for you—Carpe diem is a term from the poet Horace in his 11th ode. “Carpe” is a verb that actually means “to pluck”—it’s not as harsh as “seizing” the day (that would be “cape diem”). So go out there and pluck the day!