Why I Like College in General

Hello! How is your week going? As I type this, my week is wrapping up. Today, Friday, I went to my shift at the farm, went to my hydrogeology class, sang at choral society rehearsal for one hour, ate a yummy dinner, did some homework, and then went to the gym with Eric. Haha gotcha there. We did not go to the gym to exercise. This was the basketball gym, where the school set up video game stations as part of providing fun spaces inside our covid bubble that is the campus. We played some Just Dance and Overcooked, which is a simulation cooking game. Then, we stopped off at “Late Night” at the dining hall, where we picked up some chips and cookies. It was a very decent Friday.

It was a good Friday because a few of us got into summer on-campus research programs! And I got a few good grades back on some assignments, which is always nice, especially when I am dreading an upcoming hydrogeology exam that I have to study for this week. But, it got me thinking. I have really enjoyed my time at college and I realized I’ve never written a blog post just on why I like college in general.

Why I like college in general: 

(this list is not in any order)

  1. It’s all about self-improvement. 

Okay think about it. After college, a lot of your time is going to be spent helping other people improve. When you get a job, you have to satisfy your boss. If you have a kid, you spend your time raising the kid. College is different. Here, you get out of college what you put into college. Isn’t that the most awesome gift you can give yourself? It’s all about working on your weaknesses and strengthening your strengths. You get to indulge yourself in fun activities like playing video games with friends. Then, you get to choose whatever classes you want and design an amazing springboard for you to jump on when you are ready to launch into your career.

  1. It’s more than just the grades.

In high school, I always felt an existential threat that if I didn’t do well, I wouldn’t get into a good college. If I didn’t do 100 extracurriculars, or get the grades I wanted in every class, then I wouldn’t achieve that goal. However, once you go to college, what are those grades for? Yes, you still should strive to do your best. And yes, graduate schools want good grades. But now, you have a little bit more wiggle room. In addition to doing well in your classes, you have to meet some professors, maybe get a job or an internship, learn new professional and independence skills, etc. I personally find this way more fun than just worrying about a small grade on an exam.

  1. You learn to be independent.

At college, you are in charge of your life. You can decide whether you want to take only morning classes or only afternoon classes. Do you like to go into town a lot or just stay in your dorm? Do you want to stay up all night working on an essay? How about going to a fun relaxing event on a Tuesday afternoon, or maybe grabbing dinner whenever you want, and you don’t have to do the dishes. How lucky. I really enjoyed figuring out how to be independent in school and becoming more confident in my own choices instead of relying on others’ advice. 

  1. You are surrounded by smart thinkers. 

Okay, I feel like at every college tour I went to, the tour guide would say, “We are all such intellectual thinkers. I walk out of the classroom and continue talking about the readings with my peers or during dinner I have all of these intellectual debates with my friends!” Yeah...I was a little skeptical that that’s what 20-year olds did all day long. But it’s actually true. It’s so completely 100% true that it’s kind of spooky. I’ve actually walked out of a classroom/tent and walked all the way back to the dormitory with some friends discussing what we learned in class. Then, during lunch we talked about felon disenfranchisement! And oh my goodness, the amount of times I have gathered with some friends for dinner and we ask each other how our classes went and then we just talk about what we learned in class and it’s amazing. After thinking about it, it kind of makes sense. If you pried open a college student’s head, 90% of it would be composed of materials from their classes (the other 10% would probably be a memorized weekly schedule of the best times the laundry machines are open). So, it’s likely to come up in conversation. 

Stick around next week for part 2!

Why I Like College in General Part 2

Hello, and welcome to part 2! I am just getting back into the swing of things after 4 days of no classes. During this mini break, I got to do so much with my friends. We went to an arcade event, played board games, played some low key basketball in the gym, went to Mammoth Meet Up (a food and music outdoor event), had a picnic, ordered restaurant food, and took nice walks around campus. Today, I went to my once-weekly shift at the theater. We organized the basement of the theater, since they just finished two shows. I went to see one of the shows this weekend. It was directed by a senior theater major, and it was so nice to go to an in-person show. 

It was also a good time to reflect about college some more. After some more thought, I have added a few more bullet points to my “why I love college in general” list. This list, however, is a little bit less serious. 

  1. You get your own dorm room! 
    • As someone who loves to decorate, I always like the idea of having my own space to make my own. Dorms are special because you can live in the same building as your friends. During fall of Sophomore year, all 9 of my friends got to be on the same floor and we even got our own personal lounge space! In dormitories, you get so many spaces to hang out with people your age and without as many responsibilities as one would have after graduating. 
  2. You get to “shop” for classes
    • At Amherst, shopping for classes usually isn’t that stressful. Because it’s a pretty small school, you usually get to take the classes you want. If not, it’s usually because the class is really popular or you don’t have the prerequisites. Out of all of the classes I have tried to register for, I’ve only been unable to take 3. Because you are encouraged to take classes from lots of different departments, I can take a variety of classes. I am not just stuck with the classes in my major/department. 
  3. You get career support
    • I really appreciate the Loeb center here, which helps you get internships and jobs. They helped me get my summer internship last summer. I am also going to be on campus this summer doing research on the death penalty with two other students and a professor. The school also sends us emails about fellowships or funding that we can apply for before we graduate.
  4. Amherst will fund a lot of activities for you.
    • I have done so many amazing things during my time at Amherst, and they paid for it all! I think there is actually a rule where you cannot host events on campus with mandatory entrance fees. Some examples of activities that I participated in are:
      • Skiing with the ski club
      • White water rafting with the outing club
      • A one-week trip to Ecuador with my architecture class (this ended up being cancelled because of Covid, but Amherst would have funded it)
      • A not-for-credit art curation class over January term, where we got to spend a night in New York City
      • A trip to Boston to see a basketball game
      • Paint and sip (with bubble tea)
      • Massage sessions during finals week
      • PINDAR dinner
      • Group archery lessons at a nearby school
    • Activities during the Covid-era
      • A bullet journaling session
      • Arcade night
      • Build-a-bear workshop
      • Paint-by-numbers
      • Bowling in the Powerhouse
      • Mini golf in the Powerhouse
      • Pumpkin carving
      • Weekly catering from local restaurants
      • Video gaming at the Nintendo Switch stations
      • Pool table on 3rd floor of Moore Dormitory

Wow, now that I’m looking at these lists the pre-Covid activities look way cooler. Ah, well. Hopefully by my senior year there will be off campus excursions again! This year has been really great despite the Covid rules. It’s impressive that we are able to do all of the activities above while not leaving campus.

 

9 of us stand, masked, in front of a large blow up mammoth, cloudy sky, green grass

Weekends are Fun! Part 1

These past few weekends have been incredible. For this post, I am going to talk about weekends and just HOW MUCH you can squeeze into two days. There is surprisingly a lot that you can do at Amherst over a weekend. And most of it involved never leaving campus!!

Trees, cloudy sky, and shady soft ground at wildlife sanctuary

I really like playing tennis with my friends. Last semester (fall) we played a lot more. This semester, we have just begun to play again, mostly because the weather is finally getting warmer again! I have a friend who is a Freshman and another friend who I met over winter break during our Freshman year. The three of us played tennis on sunny a Friday afternoon. 

Empty tennis courts except my friend who is facing away, tying up her hair

Then, the next day, Saturday, I got my second Covid vaccine shot! We signed up to receive a vaccine at the end of March in Northampton. Amherst College received authorization and a shipment of vaccines about mid-semester to give to its students. This was after we had received our shot, so we went back to Northampton to receive the second dose anyways. It was a great excursion. 

Posing with my friend and a sticker at the vaccine clinic. Masked and in front of an orange photo booth backdrop.

After I got my shot, I went for a walk with the Mycology Club to go foraging for mushrooms in the wildlife sanctuary on campus. The wildlife sanctuary is a large plot of land owned by Amherst with forest, paths, a few creeks, and a pond. I was a little nervous to go on the walk because I didn’t know many people but I decided rather spore of the moment that I would go. However, it was so amazing! There were people from many different years and we all got along very quickly. Everyone was so enthusiastic about finding mushrooms, and we actually found quite a few! We also saw two snakes in the lake at the sanctuary. Some people think that there's not mushroom on campus for so much exploration, but you'd be surprised! There's really no cap on just how much you can discover when nature is involved.

Long skinny trees, soft brown path, and lake in distance. People walking in background.
Two light blue mushrooms sprouting from a lot, pine needles and leaves around it

On Sunday, I went with two friends to a plant and bubble tea giveaway hosted by a campus activities group. I picked up a tiny little spruce growing kit, from seed! 

About two inch tall baby spruce tree sapling in a clay pot

This is a photo of it a few days later. There's two! They really spruce up my dorm room.

That’s it for that weekend! Check in later for an update on the weekend after! P.S. sorry about the cringey puns.

Tags:  blog-student life 

Weekends are Fun! Part 2

Hello! Well isn’t this getting emotional. The year is almost over. This could possibly be my last post! Maybe I will see if I can write one more before the end of the semester. 

It has been a joy reading for you all, even though I have no idea who is reading my posts! Well, except those who reached out with questions. Even if you want to ask questions after this week, please feel free to email me! I can give you lots of first-hand information about Amherst as well as secrets that you can’t read online. For example, if you ever wanted to know the name of our mascot, sorry folks, it’s actually NOT written anywhere online!!!

As promised, here are some more activities that I did just within one weekend...

I signed up to go for a hike to Mount Tom about half an hour off campus, an event set up by Amherst. It was so amazing, one of my fondest memories of this semester! This was another event that I attended without knowing who else would be there. Surprisingly, I recognized about half of the faces (perks of going to a small school!). They hired a guide to walk with us and he was amazing. He really encouraged us to get to know each other and not cling to the people we knew well. During the hike I got to know some upperclassmen and got LOTS of advice. I also met someone who was also a sophomore who I had never met before. The scenery was really beautiful to look at. I enjoyed climbing up and up and watching as the trees thinned out and became more evergreen. The path became rockier and the air colder. Then, we reached an opening and I found myself at the edge of a very high mountain cliff! We were looking out over the edge of East Hampton. Beyond a little patch on the right was the tiny buildings of UMass in the distance. On the walk back, the guide snapped off part of a young tree and let us sniff it. It smelled like root beer! Fun fact, the yellow birch tree branch, when scratched, smells like root beer. 

Standing on cliff side, hair blowing, wearing coat, distant landscape below

After the hike, we took the bus back to campus and I ran over to City Streets. City Streets is an annual festival and tradition on the college campus. The school sets up lots of tents full of food from local vendors. The vendors have food from different countries and there are flags from countries students come from/identify with. My favorite food was a corn dog with mozzarella cheese and an Asian-inspired bread crumb. We stuffed our stomachs as much as we could while listening to really good live music. We all got so full that we skipped dinner! 

Six of us stand behind a large 1821 statue, heads poking through the numbers, on science center quad

Later that evening, I watched a livestream of the prerecorded choral society concert, which I sang in! This year, choral society was a lot different. We had to practice 12 feet apart, and only for half an hour at a time indoors! We even sang one song that was completely virtual. It was called “Unmute Yourself” and was about what social injustices you would unmute yourself to speak up against. 

That evening, I hosted a campfire with s’mores for Multicultural Students’ Union! 

A dozen people stand behind a small campfire, hands behind backs, very dark outside

The next day, Sunday, I met with my Hydrogeology professor to collect some water samples from 3 rivers on campus. We are collecting data on the rivers for our presentation to the Town of Amherst. They are restoring the river and can use our class’s input. It’s really cool that my laboratory assignments and final project will be part of a larger project that will make meaningful changes to the town and community. 

I take a mirror selfie with a layout of various bottles of river water on the counter of the bathroom

That’s all!

 

 

 

Tags:  blog-student life 

Wrapping Up Sophomore Year

Taking a selfie at a museum with a modern sculpture behind

Hello!

I am writing this last post from my home in New Jersey. It is two days after the last day of finals and I am feeling very relaxed. It is so nice to be done with all the hard work and be with family (and my dog) again!

I have decided that for this post, I will just share some photos from this semester. 

 

Two friends eating dinner on the Val balcony

Eating dinner with some friends. The art building and another academic and religious building are in the background. We sat on the Val Dining Hall balcony, or "Valcony".

Snowy April day with green grass as well!

It snowed in mid-April while the grass was trying to turn green! What a strange sight. In the photo is the Beneski Building of geology.

Eating a breakfast outside, coffee, fruit, pancakes

Breakfast outside! Some iced coffee (a new addition!), pancakes with sliced banana and hot fudge, fresh grapes, eggs, spinach, and a seed pudding thing.

Taking a selfie with sleds

This is an old photo from February! Sledding with some friends. You can see the notch (a low mountain range) in the background.

Holding up a popsicle on the Val quad

Eating a popsicle on the Val quad!

Standing at a Black Minds Matter walkout

Standing at a Black Minds Matter walkout with Frost Library in the background.

A cartoon I made: first casualty of amherst bubble is a bird

A cartoon I drew while attending a how-to-make cartoons event. I know that explaining a joke ruins it, but in case you don't understand, we had to stay in a covid-free "bubble" this year with the pandemic where nobody could leave or enter campus.

Landscape shot of blue sky, dry grass on a quad with some chairs

A pretty blue sky on the quad outside of two senior dorms (not pictured). You can see the old science center and the new science center in the background as well as some iconic tents and adirondack chairs. 

A friend bowling

Bowling at the powerhouse! Because we could not leave campus this semester, they brought the fun activities to us. 

River and dry winter grass on bike path, cloudless sky

A photo from the bike path which is accessible from campus. I am always so happy when I go on this bike path.

A long line of people waiting for a free plant

And lastly, a hilarious photo of all of the people waiting in line to get a free plant. This is not an uncommon sight. It's even longer when it's free bubble tea! The line went all the way to the door of that building in the background and curved off to the side.

That's it for this semester! I hope this blog was helpful in some way. Good luck to you with your college search process!