Great Expectations

My expectations of college before I actually got here was that it is cold and institutionalized. I also had the eerie expectation that during the transition to college I would feel alone and like a stranger among new faces and new buildings. The expectation that I had of the work program was a negative one due to a previously bad experience as a computer technician that I had for a year and a half during high school. Included in that negative expectation were some concerns about having to create a relationship with the work crew. Living in my home town and seeing people say one thing and do another left me questioning “Can a college actually practice what it preaches?” or is it just a bunch of talk to justify not following what they preach?

In reality Warren Wilson is much more than I could have ever expected.

The atmosphere is friendly and full of people who are willing to help with anything that is needed. All you have to do is ask. I never expected that any “American” college would be so open and excepting of so many people of different races, creeds, beliefs, cultures, and backgrounds. It is such a great feeling to be accepted as who you are and for your skills rather than the pre-constructed norm that society imposes on us from the time we are born. Also “Camp Wilson” is a lot more like a “summer camp” that I would have ever expected, but I know that the pace is about to be quickened and that summer camp feeling is about to disappear.

The transition from high school to college has been much easier than I ever expected due to the ability to share ideas freely and openly without the worry of being judged. The transition was also helped along by the fact that things shared in a peer group are done with a certain level of confidence that increases as the bonds forged get stronger.

Work. The work crew assignments although may not be what you were hoping for will probably be a good fit after we are able to adjust to the somewhat random order of the assignments. I like working. I’m just not fond of workplace politics.

It was refreshing to have my expectations shattered when it came to seeing how Warren Wilson practices what it preaches. I’m glad to see for the most part the staff and students pitching in to help “walk the walk” instead of just talking. One good example is service day 2010, in which the freshmen peer groups went out to local community gardens to help give notice to the issue of food insecurity. This is also a way of giving back to the community that helped to start the college. Another area that Warren Wilson practices what it preaches is in using bio-fuels to power almost all of the vehicles used on campus. Giving back to a community can be a very rewarding experience, because it allows a younger generation to see that there is more to life than computers and technology.

All in all college is what you make of it, that means not being hold-up in your room on your computer but experiencing all of what Warren Wilson has to offer.

So Long Ago... So Far Away...

I started the applications for Teach for America and graduate school just this week. I am beginning my senior year at Warren Wilson in two weeks. As I look forward into this year, I cannot help but look back at how this whole amazing journey started with a letter four and a half years ago.

I can still remember the day I got my first information packet from Warren Wilson. I had been searching fruitlessly for the right college for months. No matter what college search site I used, all my searches came up empty. When I got the envelope from Wilson, I did what I did with all college mailings; I tore it open and glanced at the first page, prepared to throw it into the recycling. Instead, I burst into tears; I had finally found my school. All I had to read was “work program. . .service requirement. . .working farm” to know it was perfect. I visited on my 17th birthday, applied early decision, was accepted, and arrived in August of 2007. From the beginning, I loved Warren Wilson despite the fact that I lived in Sunderland next to one of the loudest residents in the dorm, and I worked on dining, two things many incoming students may dread. By the end of the year, I had managed to accumulate 97 service hours, learned to drum, attended every contra dance except one, avoided getting the flu when it ran through Sunderland, started singing (a lifelong dream), went to yoga twice a week every week, completed training to become an advocate for Our VOICE, the Asheville rape crisis center, and declared a History major with a Gender and Women's Studies minor. It was, without a doubt, one of the best years of my life.

When we let out for summer, I counted the days until I would be back at Wilson with my friends, in a new dorm, Ballfield B, and on my new crew, RISE Project (www.warren-wilson.edu/~rise). I re-declared my major as Gender and Women's studies with a History minor and then added a second minor in Music. By the time summer arrived, I was already counting down the days until I would be back at Wilson for my junior year. When I got back home to New Mexico, I realized something had changed. In the past, the trip to New Mexico was a trip home. That summer, the trip to New Mexico was a visit home. Warren Wilson had become my real home, a place where I had built a family of amazing, strong, and wonderful friends, had a job, and had established myself as part of the community.

Back at Wilson that fall, I face the most stressful year to date. I was returning to school after a lot of drama at home during the summer. I needed time to process and recover but school was in full swing before I really got the chance. My high stress made it hard at times to function and when I came down with mono, the situation did not improve. I made it through the fall semester still in good academic standing but completely exhausted. Spring semester, I decided to take both the capstone (thesis) classes – Feminist Thought and Gender and Social Change – for my Gender Studies major. After turning in my two 21 page papers which completed those classes, there was nothing I wanted more than for the year to end. Academia seemed to be getting the best of me. I began to worry that the dreaded senioritis had arrived a year early and I might have burnt myself out for my senior year which I had been looking forward to.

My dread evaporated about half way through the summer, turning into overwhelming excitement to see my friends again, move back to my old room, sing with the college chorale, work on my old crew (RISE), and try to squeeze in as many service hours as I can manage even though I don't technically need them. It is strange getting to the place in school where I am finishing things. It's both happy and sad to realize that fall semester I will be taking my final gender studies course, my final general education course, and my final elective for my music minor. Come spring, I will be preparing for my senior solo voice recital and sorting through my various belongings to decide which ones are going with me wherever I go next. Finally, I will be walking across the stage to receive my diploma. It is surreal, wonderful, and sad. I cannot believe my time here has passed so fast. Of course it hasn't always been an easy or fun process but on this side of things, it is much easier to see the good in everything I have learned while at Wilson. Attending Wilson has been and I know will continue to be a gift which informs every action in my life. In the end, what can I say but, thank you to everyone who has made this experience what it is.

Victoria