April Showers Bring May Flowers... Or is it Vassar's Greenhouse?

Spring is probably my favorite season at Vassar. It’s not blistering hot or humid (don’t get me started on summer…), the campus turns from gray to green, and students finally emerge from their caves and let you know that there is, indeed, life on campus. On a more depressing note, this morning I was reminded that this is my last spring at Vassar when the AAVC (Alumni Association of Vassar College) emailed me their May newsletter. WHAT??!! If you’re going to send me your newsletter, you’d better give me my degree.

Yesterday the class of 2008 was officially welcomed to the AAVC, which began at convocation (I’ll come back to that…) and was proceeded by a big free food and beverage fest at the Alumnae House (foreshadowing?). Of course, it was all fun and games yesterday… then I opened my email this morning and realized that, indeed, all good things must come to an end.

It’s hard to think about packing my things when the weather is 65 degrees and sunny and my classmates are relaxing on blankets outside of my window—reading for class or for pleasure (with the former being much more likely). As much as completing my finals will be a relief, it’s also a bit scary to come to terms with the fact that I only have two more college classes left, and then I’ll be on my own. I will never again return to the welcoming gate of Vassar College after an exhausting summer of living (perhaps “surviving” is a better term) at home, and share stories with my friends of how bored I was without homework occupying my time (that’s only a bit of a stretch). Goodbye, Vassar Bubble, hello…. Real World?

Convocation, as I mentioned earlier, is basically a ceremony honoring seniors that occurs biannually—once in the fall and once in the spring. While many people are bored by it (let’s be honest), I always feel like I should go because I can. What happened during this convocation? The president addressed the class, the VSA (Vassar Students Association) President addressed the class, a graduate from the class of 2001 addressed the class, college dean Ron Sharp addressed the class, and the choir sang a few times. Voila! Convocation! Okay, so it doesn’t sound too impressive, but it can be interesting. In front of me, a few people were playing convocation Bingo, which basically entails a homemade Bingo sheet that includes terms such as “future,” “sustainability,” “Internet,” and all those other things we talk about at Vassar. (Can you connect five? You win!) My neighbor on the right got a much-needed nap; my neighbor on the left peered at the sports magazine held by the guy in front of him. As for me? Well, given few other options, I listened. Besides, there are very few times when I can just sit, listen, and not have to fully absorb what is lectured.

At the very end, we were shepherded out by the Vassar faculty and instructed to pose for a class photo. I picked a place on the very end between my housemate and my boyfriend, which was strategic for getting to the Alumnae House in time to grab my free food and spiked party punch before it disappeared, which turned out to be a wise idea.

This time of year always brings a mix of feelings—which are best described as happiness and sadness—although what is different this year is that they are also accompanied by fear. I am happy to be done, but at the same time it’ll be hard to leave my home and my friends for somewhere completely new, which is where the sadness and the fear come in. But to use the perspective of one of my favorite professors, there is also an element of excitement awaiting me alongside absolute freedom. Nowhere to go and nothing to do is liberating, and it’s something I’ve never experienced before. I guess we’ll see where my experiences take me.

Denazification vs. Berlin

It's been a pretty crazy week, but at least now I feel like I'm getting somewhere. Most of my thesis chapter done? Check. Spring semester class pre-registration finished? Check. Half done with the Nazi paper? (Yes, you read that right. Nazi paper.) Check.

I started writing this paper on Nazi Germany a couple weeks ago for a class I'm taking called "German History from 1914-1990." Boy, they weren't kidding. If I had any sense when I signed up for the class I would have realized that we would spend most of the semester talking about the Nazis, considering that's pretty much what modern Germany history is; you know, Nazis taking over the government, starting World War II, denazification, now. It also doesn't help that I have blonde hair and blue eyes, which causes my Jewish housemate to interrogate me while I read a book called "The Racial State," or when I curl up on the couch with my popcorn while watching the propaganda film "Triumph of the Will." But I swear I don't do this for fun--I have a term paper! My paper focuses on Weber's definition of charismatic authority and it's representation in the film "Triumph of the Will," which I think is a pretty cool topic. But that also means I've seen the film so many times at this point that I'll catch myself whistling the music out of nowhere--then I have to pretend that I was whistling something else in an effort to make people feel less uncomfortable, especially considering the number of Jewish friends I have on campus.

As much as I need to get away from the Nazis, I have a very tempting offer to take a seminar next semester on the Holocaust. You may be wondering why I'm considering taking a class on such an uplifting subject. Well, the key to this class is that it offers a study trip and study trips are AWESOME! Well, I don't know that for sure because I've never actually taken a class with a study trip, but any class that makes you to travel to another country as homework must be awesome.

Basically, if I take the class, I get to spend Spring Break in BERLIN while getting financial aid to help cover the cost of the trip. And considering the amount of financial aid I'm on... well, we'll just say that for me it'd be a pretty sweet deal. Plus, the professor said that after Spring Break I wouldn't have that much work to do because going on the trip is a such an important part of the course, which would give me time to work on my thesis. And what's holding me back from this exclusive offer? Two things: a thesis and a Sociology seminar.

At this point, the question is: "Do I give in to senioritis and take some easy courses to balance the work of the thesis and a required seminar, or do take something interesting and opportunistic even though it might cause me to scream at random points throughout next semester?"

Decisions, decisions.

Actually, reading over that last big paragraph just talked me into it. I'm signing up for the seminar!