The World Beyond the Quad: Getting to Know the Pioneer Valley

    
This past summer was the first summer I spent away from home. Home has recently become an amorphous concept for me; my parents just moved from the smallest town on the Eastern Seaboard to the big, bad city of Baltimore, and I wanted to get away from the culture shock and the friendlessness. I wasn’t ready for the big city this summer, and I was excited to be (sort of) on my own.  I was ready to figure out what home meant for me at that point in my life, and hoping I would find something of it at Amherst in Plimpton House.

     And so ensued my very first Amherst summer. The summer I dove headfirst into teaching middle schoolers; the summer I jumped feet first from the cliff at Puffers Pond; the summer I pretended peanut butter was a vegetable (and, on occasion, cooked some actual veggies as well); the summer of my first quasi-romance; the summer I formed friendships with people I may never have glanced at otherwise.
    

     A funny thing happens when you’re at Amherst and you don’t have any homework to do: you notice the world around you. Yes, it actually DOES exist. There is more to this diverse population than the 18- to 24-year-old crowd sporting purple tees and JanSports. There is more to do than dance atop windowsills in Davis on Saturday nights and hunker down under course readers in A-level on Sunday afternoons.
One morning in July, I woke up, jumped out of bed, and yelled to myself, “MOLLIE, GET OUT OF THE AMHERST COLLEGE BUBBLE AND EXPLORE!” (Disclaimer: this episode probably didn’t happen exactly as stated). “Really,” I continued, “the area is simply bursting at the seams with wonderful places and an exciting and diverse civic culture. Many adventures await, dear self.”
 

So what, you may ask, did I require for these adventures?
1. My feet and/or
2. A bike (plus helmet!) and/or
3. A car (plus driver’s license… *sigh*) and/or
4. Semi-unlimited access to a campus van and most definitely
5. An interest in anything. Really, anything at all.
 

…And that’s it. Five things at most, but probably less. Five things that each, in turn, took me to festivals, farmers markets, delicious ice cream shops, expansive bookstores, and a million places to swim (well… at least three), among other fantastic things. I plan on dedicating my (already over-committed) self to this grand Amherst adventure throughout my forthcoming years.  Stay tuned for an account of my first adventure this fall: the honey festival.