College Visits Day 3

Saturday, March 26, 2011

I woke up peacefully and very rested this morning. I also found that my ribs are extremely sore, presumably from all those push-ups yesterday (in total, I did 100!). I think that’s thrown my stomach off a little bit…oh well, sometimes feeling sore feels good – makes me feel accomplished. We all showered and got ready to go. Had a few sips of tea, but didn’t get to finish that cup… However, that was all fine because… At about 10:40 we walked across the street to the Slow Train Café again and shared two Chocolate Expresso muffins between the three of us. They were vegan, so we could eat them, and quite good. Just a tad bit dry, but still an extremely tasteful breakfast! I thanked my parents for letting me have a huge chocolate muffin for breakfast. We started dipping the pieces of muffin into the soy chai latte my mom had ordered, and boy was that scrumptious!

11:15 Soon after, we made our way to the Admissions Office for the information session and campus tour. There were about thirty people in the information session, which was about 45 minutes long and covered lots of information about Oberlin. He said a few things that really stuck with me about the personal essay for college applications. He said, firstly, to write about yourself, not some other figure (since “we’re not admitting your aunt to college, or Abraham Lincoln”), and that it doesn’t have to be a structured essay, with an introduction, three main points, and a conclusion. He said you don’t even have to have a formal conclusion. And he said this is why: because your life is concluded yet, “otherwise you’d be dead, not applying to college.” That is, of course, very true, and I like how he said that. How could you have a conclusion? Things are still very open-ended. I got inspired when he was talking about that, so I took a few notes on my iPhone about what the essay could be like. I have a good idea of how to write it.

12:00 After that, we went on the campus tour. I loved it! It was, of course, frigidly cold, but we kept moving, so it wasn’t too bad. Our tour guide was a sophomore, a History major, and deciding on a second major, either French or something else. She said a lot about all the opportunities on campus, and really gave us all a well-rounded perspective on what they have to offer. We walked through the Conservatory of Music (which is world-renowned, and apparently comparable to Julliard). It was an aesthetically pleasing building, especially the jazz part. Something particularly unique about the college (among many other things, of course) is that you can actually get a double-degree – a Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degree – at the same time. This is only if you were enrolled in both the music and arts & sciences divisions of the college. However, even if you weren’t enrolled in the Conservatory of Music, you can still take music lessons and be involved in the music programs, which is nice. She also talked about the food and living co-ops, which is basically working with a group of people to sustain good living quarters and/or cook food (which is definitely something I would be interested in).

After the tour, I found myself much more interested in Oberlin. I’ve found that all the students I’ve seen appear to have very solid, developed characters. They all seem classy and most have a sense of style. I like how accepting they all are of different, innovative ideas, and effective they seem to be. In the information session, the man talked about lots of Oberlin alumni who have gone on to do big things in life. Considering some of the things Jeffrey and Lauren talked about yesterday also, I’m beginning to see how important a Liberal Arts education may be to me. That it seems a lot more like my kind of thing than an Ivy League school (which I’ve never been very interested in, with the exception of Princeton). I love the town of Oberlin, also. It’s so alive, and the food is great! It’s what I wish the small town I live in was, and what it’s trying to be. So now, Oberlin’s looking like a sincere possibility on my wish list. I’m enthusiastic about it, and I think all the experiences I’ve had here, just in the last two days, have had a large impact on my perception of what Oberlin has to offer and why that could be the right thing for me. The only problem remaining? It’s in Ohio, not too far from where I live, and I’ve always wanted to go someplace different for college. But, you know, things change, life takes unexpected twists and turns, and many times you just have to go with the flow. I’m getting better at that.

After the tour we went to a little health food store and café called The Oberlin Market. It was fantastic! I felt like I was back home. It was very modest too, but the food was just right, and just like the things we could cook in our own kitchen…yet different enough. My mom got an absolutely delicious, to-die-for German Chocolate muffin, and we all shared some rice noodles with peanut sauce and tabouli made with quinoa, along with some bread and parsley pesto. Unfortunately, my stomach wasn’t in the best of spirits, so I couldn’t wholeheartedly enjoy the meal (after all, I barely ever have chocolate expresso muffins for breakfast). Then we went back to the little shop we discovered yesterday called Inspired, where my mom and I tried on some clothes…to no avail. The thought was nice, of fair trade and bamboo cloth, but they didn’t fit right. I did get a beautiful green and silver bracelet that sort of wraps around several times; and it was handmade in Indonesia! I found it yesterday, and still loved it today…and I’m wearing it now. It’s motivating to thing that I can walk around all day wearing something on my arm that was made halfway around the world. (Not that most people don’t do that…but buying it in a small store, and knowing that it’s fair trade makes all the difference. I feel so much more connected.) We walked back up and stopped in the bookstore for a few more minutes, where my parents found a couple of books by David Orr – the man who designed the Adam J. Lewis Center. On our way there we stopped in at Gibson’s, a place that has ice cream, donuts, and chocolate covered everything. Seriously – dried cranberries, dried mangoes, dried cantaloupe, dried apple, pretzels, Oreos, mint patties, marshmallows, granola…all covered in chocolate. Let’s just say…I’d really like to go back there.

We finally walked back to “our house,” and I promptly went to the bathroom, made a cup of tea, and had a few grapes. I’ve been sitting at the kitchen table, typing this up, for an hour at least, and soon we’ll probably go to the Slow Train Café! Who knows what the rest of the day holds… We’ll see!

At one point today, while I was washing my hands actually, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of enthusiasm for life. I’m filled with this quite often, actually, but sometimes it gets to be so much that I’m afraid I’ll burst with it! It’s a little confusing, too, because I enjoy so very much what I’m doing at the moment, yet I just can’t wait to move on, go out into the world, and do more! I’ve considered starting college early, but I don’t want to rush too fast through the experience of going through high school, and all the enrichment I can experience at my school and in the surrounding area. Better to make the most I can of that time than rush through it so that I can be finished with school earl, I believe. But who knows what’ll happen – I’ve still got time.

6:23 p.m. Now I’m sitting in the Slow Train Café again, finally warm and sort of tired, ready to relax. And try some of the Everything Cookie my mom just got! I walked around campus with my mom while she took some pictures. It was nice to talk and revisit some of the places we’d seen earlier in the day. I still LOVE the Conservatory of Music – it has such a calm and focused feeling to it…as does the rest of campus, actually, and all the students. Everything I do here just makes me love it more!