Sep
19
By Sara Aboulafia
Sara Aboulafia ’09 hits her senior year anticipating feelings of nostalgia after she leaves, but also looking forward to life after Smith. This is her first Weblog on life as a Smith student.
Here’s a thought: The next time, after this year, that I am referred to as a “senior” will be when I get a discount at the movie theater for being over the age of 55. I am simultaneously flattered and terrified at this designation. After two years at Smith (I transferred here my sophomore year), I’m really only beginning to get the hang of it. And it seems unfair, in a way, that I’ve got so little time left here.
“Okay, okay,” I tell myself, “live the moment, be present every day,” all that jazz – but at Convocation, standing in a sea of jubilant women in barely-there outfits shouting indiscriminately, I thought, “No! Don’t let this be the last time I get to perform this incredible act of permitted indecency (that is, within limits, of course), and celebrate with my kin!”
As yelps and chants rose and fell, and the Glee Club performed a song, and the faculty shifted awkwardly or proudly (depending on the faculty member) in their seats, I considered my history class with Professor Jennifer Guglielmo last year. The most powerful nationalisms, I remembered, have arisen at times of exile or emigration from people’s country of origin. Yes, this is my own little nationalism, I thought, caught at the last minute like a fever. And yet, like the memories of immigrants who think most of their shtetl (I’m thinking of my own ancestors here), their own small village or town, when they are reminded of their home countries, it’s my house at Smith that makes this place for me.
I moved into Hopkins House last spring, after most of my friends at Wilson House in the Quad left to go abroad. Hopkins is one of two “co-ops” on campus (the other being Tenney House), which means we do our own cooking and chores – a huge difference from the dining culture in the regular houses at Smith. I immediately loved the community at Hopkins, the people drifting in and out of the kitchen to smell what’s cooking, the gatherings for meals, the way the privilege of food and being together to enjoy it cannot be taken for granted. It’s the kind of place that Smith students are eager to get into – the waiting list for two small cooperative houses is tremendous, and many Smithies have to live without knowing the satisfaction of late-night music-making, of farm-fresh vegetables and freshly-baked brownies (which taste better because your best friend just made them), of a home that you form with your peers from the bottom-up.
I imagine that, the day after graduation, I will be effortlessly nostalgic for this place. For now – when I’m not working on that harrowing thesis or paper-writing – I’ll attempt to zen-out. I will concentrate on my yoga class, which at two hours every Thursday is not enough. I will say some kind of secular grace before my meals. And I will write it all down – not with desperation, but just enough to appreciate the best bits, what I’ll take with me to wherever the heck I’m going while I’m doing whatever it is I’m doing when I graduate.
Comments
One Response to “Live the Moment: The Start of Senior Year at Smith”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[...] of nostalgia after she leaves, but also looking forward to life after Smith… read about her experience at Smith on [...]