Our final Sex and the City: Barnard edition character is none other than Carrie Bradshaw. And with Carrie, where do we even begin? From her love of shoes and couture, her obsession with New York City,  her tempestuous relationships, to her great friendships, Carrie is one who has been through it all. Many of us know her like a sister, and she is undoubtedly responsible for much of the show’s charm and popularity. But how did this shoe-addicted writer get her start? Just picture her strutting through our beautiful Barnard gates…and we can answer that question and many others.
I imagine Carrie growing up somewhere in the Midwest, perhaps—a small town one of which she was just itching to get out. The second she could, she booked a flight to New York, and she instantly fell in love with the city. This young woman does not limit herself to Morningside Heights but spends every weekend combing the city, looking in boutiques and touring museums—always hungry for the kind of culture she never had access to before. New York is also undoubtedly where her fashion obsessions starts, perhaps from observing the style choices of her fellow Barnard women. Small and petite, Carrie is often seen roaming the halls of the Met and MoMA, usually scribbling observations furiously in her ubiquitous Moleskine.
Can we imagine Carrie as anything other than an English major? A born writer, Carrie uses her quick wit and keen observational skills to write about everything she sees each day. Carrie focuses on listening to the opinions of her peers and soaking in as much as she can from her professors before she feels ready to form her own opinions and craft a new persona for her New York self. She finds it enjoyable to write opinion pieces in The Spec and The Eye, but yearns to write about something with a little more… “za za zoo.” That’s why she is also involved as a writer for Her Campus Barnard where she writes mostly about relationships and does the Campus Cutie column. Unsurprisingly, she keeps obsessive notes and observations about the people she meets and the encounters she has, especially with boys. And the outfits she wears to class (and heels, can’t forget those) make her pretty recognizable on campus!
Barnard is extremely influential and formative period for Carrie as she makes her life-long friends and begins to explore a fast-paced world. She finds herself more confused and lost than ever at times (leading to more than one fashion faux pas), but is excited by the possibilities she undoubtedly will encounter in New York City. For some, college is a time for finding oneself and figuring out one’s place in the world. But for Carrie, it represents the birth of the woman we know and will come to love over the next two decades of her life.
Â
It’s fun to envision what Samantha, Charlotte, Miranda and Carrie were like at our age. They all have admirable qualities that we Barnard women have and will continue to develop. At the same time, we can look to Sex and the City to remind us about the future’s unpredictability, the simple joys that can be life-changing, and the importance of friendship.