love for the ford, or at least the people in it
I’m not a big fan of institutions- I went to a very competitive and cut-throat high school in NYC and that experience may have scarred me indefinitely. I also feel that you can’t really be in love with an institution- or at least I can’t.
I chose Haverford because it seemed to be the antithesis of my high school- a community-oriented, engaging college where no one talks about grades? It pretty much won me over from the start.
But my time here has been varied- and I do get disillusioned with the honor code, with how much people actually care about the community , and how much people care about other issues as well. One thing I’ve learned is that it only takes a quick visit to another college or university to make me realize that it is a really special place- and maybe the senior part of me is trying to hold onto that for the rest of my time here.
It’s easy though, to forget. The stress of academic life can get really intense, and its hard to be active with other things on campus at the same time. Especially as a senior, I feel really into my work, my major, and my abilities (corny corn corn) but it gets to be too much sometimes.
Anyway! The point of this whole shpeel is that today was one of those days when I felt really good and lucky to be here. I went to a meeting with a current High Rocks employee who is a Haverford alum. High Rocks is an organization that works to educate, empower and inspire women in West Virginia. I interned there during the summer of 2009 and was really inspired myself at the change that this organization was creating. In any case, I’ve tried to promote the opportunity as much as I can from the Haverford side of things and this meeting was to talk about a spring break trip to High Rocks and also VISTA opportunities for next year. It was great to hear how much has been going on since I’ve left and how the organization is moving forward and promoting new initiatives.
Right after, I went to a talk entitled Gender and Class in Foodie Culture and Consumer Activism” which was organized by one of my friends here. It wasn’t so much the talk, but just the room of people that made me feel good about being at Haverford- people interested in social justice, who I all felt connected to, in some small and some big ways. People who push me to be a better person… for real.
So maybe I can write off this feel-good post as being appropriate since it’s almost Thanksgiving?
Right,
Natalie
