March flew by in a whirlwind. 

Week One

After having finished a successful Winter Carnival, I decided I needed a weekend away of relaxation. I texted my friend from Williams, we got in the car, and headed to the Berkshires for the weekend. As we wound down Route 7, we caught up on the last 15 months. See, my friend, Hannah, and I were on the same study abroad program, SIT Indonesia: Arts, Religion, and Social Change, and we hadn’t seen each other since December 2013. We immediately fell back into old times, recounting our triumphs and trials since we said goodbye in Denpasar. It was a warm rekindling, a testament to our wonderful semester together and a perfect reboot. 

Week Two

After the success of my weekend away, I geared up for a week of two exams, a birthday party, and our 100 Days celebration. And I had an absolute blast. I reveled in my knowledge of Mughal miniatures and esoteric Buddhist paintings. I celebrated a friend’s 22nd, the beginning of a string of birthdays in our friend group. And I danced the night away in Ross Dining Hall. I was amazed by the familiarity of the sea of faces around me, all celebrating our last semester together on campus. 

Week Three

I wrapped up the last week before spring break with our first executive board meeting with our new fellows for next year for the Activities Board. We had spent the last two weeks reviewing applications, interviewing the applicants, and deliberating as a selection committee. After hours of work, we had assembled our dream team for next year. I felt confident in passing off the torch before I hopped on the plane for Colorado. 

Week Four

For ten days, I hopped around Colorado, heading to Denver, Aspen and Colorado Springs. I appreciated the warm sunshine on my face, the Rockies to the West, and the budding Aspen trees. I will be spending my summer in Colorado Springs so I began to think about potential jobs and fun adventures to be had!

Time seems to be moving exponentially faster with the approach of May 24th! And I’m sure April will go even faster, bringing in more sun, more smiles, and more memories.

I’m not going to lie to you–it’s been a cold winter. For the month of January, the temperatures did not even think about reaching above freezing. This winter, I have established a meticulous bundling routine that ensures maximum warmth: long, warm socks, Bean boots, puffy jacket, thick mittens, and a lavender circle scarf that covers me from clavicle to nose. With hair down past my shoulder blades, I have strategized about the best time to wash it in relation to when I was leaving the house and how long I would be walking so as to avoid it freezing in large chunks.

And as I am sitting here writing this, I know that so many other places in the United States have been hit with a much more brutal winter. My friend from Boston told me her parents have snow up above their windows at home. Even down south, they have been experiencing chilly weather.

But regardless of what kind of winter you’ve had, everyone rejoices over the beginnings of spring.

Now, I don’t want to jinx it, but there is maybe a possibility that the thaw is beginning here at Middlebury. Just maybe, I write, in an effort to appease the winter gods for I do not wish to enrage them in with insolence. But for the last few days, we have been graced with a warm, radiant sun and our mountains of snow are slowly trickling away. Abandoning my circle scarf, I have walked with an upturned face, hoping to swallow as much Vitamin D as I can. I have even found an extra bounce in my step as I walk from classes to meetings to meals, as if the sun helps propel me through my day.

While winter on this campus renders Middlebury an absolute dream, the emergence of spring is irresistible. And I don’t know if we are there quite yet, but I look forward to a campus that has embraced spring. The Adirondack chairs return to Battell Beach, tables grace the outside patios of the dining halls, and students lounge between classes on whatever grassy patch they can find.

In addition to the weather, the spring always provides a jam-packed social schedule. Concerts, roller rinks, food festivals. As the sun returns from hibernation, the students follow suit.

While I am sure the snow gods will repay this post with another snow storm, the thought that spring is within reach puts a smile on my face.

After having a hectic fall of research projects, senior seminars, and job applications, this J-term felt wonderfully free. Firstly, I was able to add the class “Bollywood and Beyond” so I spent my month watching Shah Rukh Khan dance around the Swiss Alps in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Amitabh Bachchan restore his honor in the name of justice in Sholay, and Nargis embody post-Independence India in Mother India. In addition to watching these fantastic films, we learned about the religious epics, polarized politics, and social conventions that inform these movies. For my final paper, I read Devdas, a short story written in 1917 by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, which has since spawned 12 film versions of the same story over the past century. After reading the story that began the legacy, I watched Bimal Roy’s Devdas from 1955 and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s version from 2002, noting the differences in nostalgia, melodrama, and aesthetics.

Needless to say, I was in my academic and personal element.

In addition to immersing myself in this facet of Indian culture, I also took moments to enjoy my last J-term. Twice a week, I attended my “Yoga and Meditation” workshop, taking time to strengthen, stretch, and soothe the body. Additionally, with four other friends, I took a workshop called “Art of Tea: Tasting and Sustainably Sourced Loose Leaf Tea (and Chocolate).” We sampled green teas from China, matcha tea from Japan, and of course, we ended the session with a Chai tea from India. We ate white chocolate lavender bark, mocha snacks, and LoFi chocolate with each of the teas, all in the soothing, warm Stone Leaf Tea House.

In between yoga, tea tasting, and movie watching, I headed out to California for my cousin’s wedding for the weekend. I lounged in the pool, ate fresh tortillas tacos, and danced the night away with cousins and aunts and uncles. The wedding was a perfect interlude to reconnect with my family and some happy California sun.

At the end of the month, I was a little sad to say goodbye to J-term. It was the perfect time for me to explore an area of interest I do not normally during the semester. For the month, I was able to engross myself in Bollywood extravaganzas, subtle teas and chocolates, and some quality family time. The end of J-term also heralds the beginning of spring, my last semester as a Middlebury College student. Stayed tuned for exciting adventures next semester!

The air had shifted. When I returned to campus yesterday from Thanksgiving break, the final leaves of my last fall semester had been replaced by wisps of melting snow. I had just spent the week in California, where the sky looked impeccably blue and the breeze came in around a blissful 75 degrees every day. When I landed in San Diego, I felt as if I was on different planet from my familiar Vermont, palm trees lazying outside the airport and sailboats floating in the marina. Even though I had previously lived in San Diego, the city felt altogether foreign as if I was the one who had changed since I left at 15.

Once I settled, San Diego welcomed me with open arms. I meandered down the beach at least once a day, and I reveled in walking out of the house without a sweater. I indulged all my California cravings: fish tacos from Roberto’s, In N Out milk shakes, and my favorite Turkado sandwich from “Board N Brew” in Del Mar. I could feel myself slowly recharge, as if the sunrays themselves revitalized me.

I refocused this energy to thoughts of post-graduate life. Usually, Thanksgiving serves simply as a break from the demands of the semester. This year, images of post-graduate life filled my mind as I picked over rocks at the beach or during conversations over scones and frittata. I spent car rides contemplating hypotheticals and potential options, uncovering goals for both personal and professional development. What about this amazing position in a foreign city or this unknown job in a familiar place?

At our Thanksgiving meal with my mom’s family, I got asked ten thousand times about my plans after graduation. Each time, I winked and told them that that was the million-dollar question. At my cousin’s bridal shower with my father’s family, my older cousins sympathized with my predicament. “It’s like applying to college all over again, expect there’s no decision date and no clear timeline.”

I had pushed the question out of my mind until I had gotten to San Diego, where the air felt clearer and my head more steady. I couldn’t think about papers and exams and presentations and stipends and fellowships and moving costs all at the same time. But I gave myself the space in California. I let the wide ocean be my blank canvas, my sounding board, my scratch paper. With space and clear thinking, I remembered. Everything works out the way it should. Yes, I need to plan deliberately and weigh all of my options. Yes, I need to take time write applications, do interviews, and ask for recommendations. But only wonderful things await. So I can continue to let the fear of the future weigh me down. Or, I can celebrate the beauty of the next, tentative step.

The choice is yours, high school seniors. Will you join me in seeing the possibility in what’s next?

As President of the Middlebury College Activities Board, I knew I would have a packed Fall Family Weekend. MCAB serves as the largest programming board on campus, with different committees to plan a wide range of events: concerts, speakers, trivia nights, dances. You name it, we help with the planning.

For this Fall Family Weekend, we had two major events on the schedule: a Roller Rink on Friday night and a lecture and Q&A with Mary Robinson.

We traditionally do Roller Rink every Fall Family Weekend, which usually draws a big crowd. I arrived early with a crew of 10 MCABers to set up the event. We pumped 90’s summers hits and country road trip songs as we laid down the Roller Rink floor. We finished the set up about an hour early so we had the rink to ourselves before the event opened. With the disco ball spinning and green lights flashing, we skated around the smooth rink, singing “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and “Water Falls” by TLC. Shortly thereafter, the Roller Rink filled up with students, parents, and little siblings. Almost 200 people skated around over the course of three hours, each one coming out sweaty with a big smile slapped across their face. I returned to my room at 1:30am post-cleanup for a quick sleep before prepping for the next day.

In the morning, I had a bagel brunch at my house with my friends and their parents before my mother and I did a quick hike up Snake Mountain.

We rushed home from our hike so I could prepare for our big event, Mary Robinson.

The MCAB Speakers Committee is awarded money every two years to bring a prominent speaker to campus. We wanted to bring a speaker that both reflected the values and goals of the College, but we also would challenge the audience to think more critically about their understanding of the world. Mary Robinson stood out to us as a perfect candidate, both for her unparalleled leadership record as well as her unwavering commitment to social justice. Mary Robinson served as the first woman President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. She is now the President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice and a member of the Elders, a group of world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela, who contribute their wisdom, independent leadership, and integrity to tackling some of the world’s toughest problems with the goal of making the world a better place. We felt her range of speaking topics (women in leadership, climate change, and corporate social responsibility) would resonate with a wide audience. Additionally, bringing Mary Robinson during Fall Family Weekend would give parents a taste of intellectual life on campus.

The Speakers Committee, with the support of Cook Commons, was lucky enough to share dinner with Mary Robinson before the event. She spoke of her time at Harvard Law School, her work with the Elders, and her travels around the world promoting Climate Justice. She wowed us with her knowledge about human rights in the context of climate justice, and she answered students’ questions eloquently and accessibly.

After six months of intense planning, the event was over. The much anticipated weekend came to a close. But I could not have been happier.