Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Where it All Began: Love Birds Return to Wellesley College

I haven't aged a day ;-)
This past June I made my way back to Wellesley College for my 10 year reunion - it was hard to believe that it's been that long! Wellesley is an all-women's liberal arts college just a few miles west of Boston. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio I attended Columbus School for Girls and definitely didn't want to continue on the single-sex route for college but my ever-persistent guidance counselor convinced me to visit, and I instantly fell in love. With an alumnae roster that included such powerhouses as Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albright, Nora Ephron, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and Diane Sawyer I knew that I wanted to join their ranks. 

My college dorm overlooking Severance Green
Wellesley has a gorgeous campus, and I treasured the time I spent there while I studied psychology and economics. It was important to me to have access to a big city while in college and although I really wanted to attend NYU, in the end coming from Columbus, Boston was a good training ground for my eventual move to New York City 5 long, grueling years after graduation.

Throwback Love Birds
I met Mr. Love Bird while attending Wellesley (you can read how we met here) and on our first night back in Boston we reunited at Stockyard, one of our favorite restaurants with a few friends. 

With my friends Noelle and Anna
Entertaining Lil Love Bird while our friend Steve, a BC alum who coached at Northeastern with Uka, looks on
At Stockyard then and now: what a difference a few years makes!
We stayed at a local home we found on Airbnb (a vacation rental site that I highly recommend - and no, it's not a sponsored recommendation!). Nia fell in love with the owners' dog, and it was nice to be removed a bit from all the hustle of reunion and feel like we were really away - the town of Sherborn where we stayed has so many lovely, historical homes and farms. 

Lil Love Bird's new friend Cassie
Enjoying dining hall food much more than I did while at Wellesley!
My class dinner - it was right after this that I found out my grandmother passed away
My SD card in my BlackBerry randomly crashed after our trip so I was so sad to lose some fun videos I took of Nia including her singing a nigun at the multicultural church service the last day of reunion. Now whenever we tell her to sing the church song, she breaks out in "di-di-duh-di-di" and it's adorbale! However, I was able to capture the beautiful new multi-faith stained glass windows that were installed in the chapel:



One of the well known traditions of our reunion is the annual alumnae parade. The oldest representative at reunion was from the class of '32! The older alums ride in antique cars while the others walk picking up classes along the way. Mr. Love Bird captured a video of the procession all while wrangling Lil Love Bird and in the rain (I'm waving at about the :30 mark towards the right of the screen):




Waiting for the parade to start
My purple class - each incoming class is assigned one of four rotating colors
There were very few of us attending who were married and/or with kids. It's so interesting coming from the Midwest how the timeline of major life events varies drastically vs. on the East coast. Some of us with kids were surprised at the lack of events for the younger ones or some type of babysitting service - BlogHer even had childcare available for a nominal charge. Being the activist types we are (and the Squeaky Wheel that I am!), some of us discussed getting in touch before next reunion so we can organize better for those with families and suggesting this on our reunion questionnaires as well. 

Then and now: me and my roommate Maria at graduation; at reunion with our girls
Despite this (and the awful cold temperatures and rain we were plagued with during the weekend), I am so thankful for my time at Wellesley and am looking forward to returning in five years for my fifteen year reunion! 

Did you attend your college reunion? If so, what was it like?