Wish You Were Here

spring at hopkins + open houses!

I remember when I found out I was accepted to Hopkins and made the quick decision to enroll, I would spend so much time googling "Johns Hopkins" just to find random pictures of anything even remotely related to the school.  So this post is going to be a sort of picture spam of the gorgeous places all around the Hopkins campus that are blooming with the arrival of springtime .. and some pictures from our Admitted Student Open Houses thrown in as well!  Sorry if some of the pictures came out blurry or washed out -- I still haven't 100% learned how to use my camera yet.  {With an entire summer to practice, by next school year I plan to be an amazing photographer.}

                   

These are all pictures from our Upper Quad, which is bound by Gilman, Ames, Krieger, Jenkins/Mergenthaler, and Remsen Halls, and the MSE Library.

                   

Pretty tress behind the AMRs, the Chemistry Building, and Dunning Hall.

               

Daffodils in front of Fresh Food Cafe and on our Breezeway, near the lower quad.

                       

More pretty trees behind Gilman Hall, behind the Hopkins Club, and by the Bloomberg Center.

   

Trees and bushes behind Mudd Hall and Mergenthaler Hall.

             

memories of spring semester

I had a hard time deciding what to write about for this blog entry.  I have tons of entries on my list of ideas: how spring is beginning to bloom here on the Hopkins campus {this entry WILL get written, and will be complete with lots of pretty pictures!}, how great Hopkins admitted student open houses are {I have way too much fun when I work at them!}, how I'm sort of running out of steam and, while I am having so much fun at Hopkins right now, I really sort of need summer to come so I can rest and get refreshed for the fall semester, even how I've really been getting really good at eating good food.  That last one probably won't get written {I'll spare you my triumph over eating my default meal of Beefaroni for lunch and dinner}, but still, back to the point: I had a lot to choose from!  {That's "the beach," the sort of front lawn of our school that is right in front of our library.  As soon as the weather gets nice, TONS of students head out there to hang out and {pretend} to study!}

But, with the realization settling in that I really, honestly, actually only have one month left in my freshman year, I've been getting nostalgic.  The fall 2007 semester seems like a blur now: as I was living it, it felt like time was crawling, but now I understand how fast time went, and how I probably could have enjoyed it even more than I already did.  So I'm going to use this entry to go through all of the highlights of my spring semester thus far .. or at least the ones that I have pictures of to show you!

Bid Night
This semester seems like it has been totally taken over by all things Alpha Phi.  I couldn't be happier about that though -- after our recruitment week was over, I was SO relieved to receive an invitation to join my sorority!!  I'll always remember that first night as a new member of Alpha Phi, when we all got together and played games, painted a banner that hung on our Breezeway that week with all of our names on it, and overall just got to know all the girls that would soon be our fellow sisters.  {That's the only photo of me I have from Bid Night, courtesy of JHU_Julia's blog!}

Poison Ivy, Homecoming 1978 Date Party, etc.
One of the really cool things about being in a sorority {besides the bonds of eternal sisterhood and all} is that we basically get to have dances.  It's like high school, but even better because a lot of the time they're themed, the food is better, and they aren't held in the gym.  In summary .. they're a lot more fun!  This semester so far we've had a semi-formal called Poison Ivy {since the ivy leaf is a major symbol of Alpha Phi} and a date party thrown for Homecoming with the theme of Homecoming 1978.  There were some crazy costumes for that one, let me tell you! {Pictures - Megan, me, and Naomi at date party; JHU_Stephanie, Ellen, Miriam, me, and JHU_Jackie at Poison Ivy; Jackie, me, and Stephanie at date party; an example of those crazy costumes I was talking about, with Julia and Dorothy!}

 

what lies ahead

CONGRATULATIONS to all those lucky students who got letters welcoming them into the Class of 2012!  I'm sure you know this already, but this time in your lives right now will prove to be so exciting.  You'll wish with anticipation for time to go faster, and at the same time you wish you could enjoy those last few months of high school forever.  You'll be here before you know it though -- it's hard to believe I already only have about a month left of my freshman year. 

It feels like just yesterday that I was sitting in front of the family computer, over-eagerly refreshing my GMail inbox and waiting for my yes or no email.  I say "over-eagerly" because GMail actually refreshes your inbox for you . I was just so impatient after months of the decision being out of my hands that I think I wanted to feel like I had some control over making my decision arrive faster.  {I'm in a nostalgic mood since we're talking about high school .. those pictures are of the history/language hallway in Haddon Township High School, while we were decorating it for Spirit Week in our junior year.}

To be completely honest, when I applied to schools, I hadn't been banking on Johns Hopkins.  I obviously understood it was a beyond amazing school and that I would be honored to be accepted.  I put a lot of time and effort into my application for that reason and really tried hard to make sure I showed off my talents, strengths, interests, and what I would bring to the university in the clearest way possible for the person in Admissions who would eventually read it.  But I don't know that I ever really expected to actually come here .. until that moment when, after refreshing my GMail inbox for the 100000th time, I saw those words: "Congratulations from Johns Hopkins University!"

I still have the email, and every single time I look at it I remember that strange, unexplainable feeling that I felt when it popped up onto the webpage.  It felt like all the blood rushed to my head and to my fingertips -- everything got tingly, probably because I was so surprised! -- and it felt like my heart started to beat faster and faster and faster and would never slow down, and I'm sure my foot was wiggling up and down because that's what I do when I'm nervous and excited, and I had the urge to snap my fingers and be 6 months into the future at Johns Hopkins, RIGHT NOW, because I've been accepted and why would I want to wait any longer to get there? 

But I seem to remember just sitting in my chair with my mom at the table next to me and my dad in the next room, totally calm on the outside, just saying, "I got in!" loud enough so they both could hear.  At that moment, for some reason I'll never understand, none of the other decisions I was waiting for mattered.  {Those are my parents and me during one of their more recent visits to Hopkins.}

This year was definitely more competitive than any other before {even just from when I applied!}, and I am so excited for all of you new Blue Jays to join the Hopkins community.  This campus, more than any other place I have ever been, inspires me every day.  It sounds silly and probably a little cliche, but you really do walk by students or sit in class with them and wonder which one will cure a major disease, which one will become an extremely influential politician, which one will win a Pulitzer for their novel, and which one might be president of Hopkins or another university {Or the country?!  You never know!} later on down the road.  {That picture has basically no relevance, but since I finally found out who my big and my Alpha Phi family are, I'm excited!!  So there's a picture of my bigbig, my big, and me.  And they're pretty awesome, so I can make it less random by saying that they're some of those inspiring people I was talking about!}

It is such a surreal idea to grasp, to know that you are going to school with the best of the best.  Never in my life have I considered myself "knowledgable" about a whole lot of things and, while I know I'm driven and determined and have huge dreams for myself, I never really let myself believe that I was capable of achieving anything BIG in my life.  But living, learning, and talking with these students has almost made it seem like it's possible for me and for everyone .. and, because of the friends I've made here and the things I've learned about the world and about myself, I'm excited to try to make that happen.

So CONGRATULATIONS again .. get excited, and enjoy every single second left of your senior year and your first summer before college.  I am so happy to be here now and to feel like I'm making progress towards a future goal, but time always goes by way too fast.  Slow it down, take one day at a time, and know that there are so many amazing things waiting for you when you get here in the fall.  :)

{And, in the meantime, come visit if you can!}