It’s been two months since our return to the States after spending a beautiful, wild, life-changing semester abroad (Sophie in Australia, and Maddy in South Africa). Although it was nice to escape the exceptionally horrible New England winter and travel the world, we can’t help but question how we survived being away from Mount Holyoke for almost 8 long months. Let’s face it: after three years here we’ve come to appreciate and love Moho more than any other place in the world. We consider it home, maybe even more so than the houses in which we were raised. There we took our first baby steps; here at Moho, we take our first adult steps. Above all, the best part of our experience here are the friends that we’ve made that feel the same way we do about our school. The truth is, we’ve met our best friends and the sisters we never had here (including each other).
In the past three years we’ve built a lot of our own traditions, ones that some of you undoubtedly share with us. We’ve run down to M&C’s, taking the steps two at a time, just to grab 2 cupcakes on cupcake night (one chocolate and one vanilla, because how can we ever choose?!). We’ve climbed the mountain and eaten ice cream at the top on every single Mountain Day. We’ve read enough Shakespeare and Virginia Woolf to last a lifetime. We went to Convocation every year, even when it was so hot people actually fainted. We’ve sat in Blanch hours after we’re done eating, talking about nothing when we should have been working. We’ve seized every sunny opportunity to lie out on the green and pretend to actually be productive. We’ve struggled through the required courses and celebrated when they were over (no more math courses ever again!). We’ve pulled all-nighters, and we’ve spent 10 consecutive hours in the library. We’ve worked really damn hard and produced an incredible amount of high quality work. We’ve never regretted our choice to be here.
Although these have been the hardest three years of our lives, and this is most likely going to be the fourth, they have also been the best years. Upon our arrival back on campus after being away for so long, a wave of comfort, relief, and happiness washed over us. The friends we hadn’t seen for so long (some for over a year) hadn’t faded, and Moho remained as wonderful as remembered.
There is so much Mount Holyoke has to offer so take advantage of it! Join athletic clubs, become close to your professors, use our amazing gym, and take advantage of our dining halls. Look around you everyone once in a while and notice how absolutely gorgeous your school is, and remind yourself how many women in the world want to be here with you. Work hard, but not too hard – make time for friends, because the women you meet here will be your closest friends. Years from now, when you’re missing Mount Holyoke and feeling terribly homesick, those same friends will be who you turn to. This time next year, the two of us will be sitting at our real life jobs (if the economy doesn’t screw us) wishing we could be back here again. One of us will call up the other, and we’ll reminisce about the good times and the not-so-good times, and say we wish we could go back. So build the connections that matter, make the most of what Mount Holyoke gives you, and enjoy every precious moment you have here, while you can, because you can’t go home again.