#something for my prospies

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

[melissa-titanium]

ok this makes no sense but what if. bc prospit is brighter (from what i can remember?) than derse  prospi carapacians had false black eyes under their real eyes. like pm for example

what if those werent herreal eyes... like u see how they r SUPER close together. like what if  they r just markings to absorb any light away from the actual eyes... i was gonna say “what if they had EYELASHES!???!!!!?!” but arent long eyelashes to stop dust/sand from going in the eyes and not light so maybe not. but it is still cool

and the opposite for dersite carapacians  what if they had larger eyes to take in more light bc of how dark it was there. i think i might hve seen something like this already done before but just Cause...

wish i knew more about like. speculative biology i think its called? bc oh my godddd iwould be coming up wih the COOLEST SHIT but i Dont.. kniow anything about it ☹️

[cardiaccanesblog]

Canes News: 7/3/2024 and 7/4/2024

Well I’ve had my time to grieve and while I’m still very sad about the players who signed with other teams, I’ve made my peace with it. I have no ill will towards them and hope them the best in their new teams.

That being said, Eric Tulsky is making moves and I’m excited to see how the pre season goes.

Signed

Riley Stillman for 1x775k

Adding depth to blue line is not something I’m going to be mad about. His dad Cory Stillman played on Carolina in the 2005-2006 and I do love a legacy. Are the Canes going in on the ex-Buffalo Sabre blessing? Who knows.

Jack Roslovic for 1x2.8 million

Now this is that right handed center that we've been looking for. Is he an ex-Ranger? Yes. Did I see him absolutely cook our defense? Yes. I personally like this one year deal. The price might be a little bit high, but it gives him the chance to prove himself and if it doesn't work out, then he's a free agent next year.

Outstanding Tasks

We are still waiting on any Necas, Drury, and Jarvy news. I have seen people speculate numbers for a Jarvis contract and I have seen people speculate that Necas is getting traded. None of these rumors have come from Elliotte Friedman or anyone close with the Canes organization as far as I can tell.

Other News

Prospie camp is next week! We have 6 d-men, 10 forwards, and 5 goalies attending camp. Bradley Nadeau's brother Josh was invited to camp. Excited to see how that shakes out!

[ellies-enrichment]

Hey, no worries, dawg. You respond when you have the time and energy. Gotta take care of that dawg in you and give her some eepies every now and then. You've been going through A LOT between AoS and the TLoU picture. Hell, I ended up calling out of my second job today cuz that dawg in me is real eepy! 😴 ... And I'm first in line for a job on the docks rn. I feel a 12hr grain shift coming on for night hire... 💀

-aos anon🫂

P.S. can't wait for your next chappy on your new fic! 🤠 I mean, I can, but I'm excite about it! 🤠🤠🤠 And I've wanted to ask.... If you were gonna come back to your Prospie/Red Dead crossover fic eventually because BOY HOWDY I LOOOOOOOOOVE THAT ONE SO FRIGGIN MUCH!!! 🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠 I'm still on Chapter 2 of my own RDR2 playthrough because I'm just exploring (and getting ambushed and dying 💀) the map and hunting like no one's business rn. 🤠🤭

woogh a 12hr shift would end me im sure esp with manual labor you're stronger than me bestie

!!! I appreciate you reading it 🥺 i'm trying to get better about just posting writing rather than rewriting it a billion times and then never posting (the amount of prospie fics i have in my docs that will likely never see the light of day is insane) so this one is getting me into that routine hopefully (i havent rewrote a whole chapter yet and im halfway through chappy 2)

I expect to update Bounty Fic in the next few days if i can keep the train going

CEEHAWWWW !!!!! my beloved ceehaw she's on the backburner but i have the next two chapters outlined (if i can stop rewriting them lol) i just have to figure out which one is chapter 5 and then i can upload that one and then post the next almost immediately after but she is coming!! I think once I start RDR2 over again it'll respark the fixation of the wild west (ive been on GTA recently so it modernized my new born country and the vibes were off)

I remember my first playthrough once i got access to the open world i was a menace. I was never at camp. I was always out doing something. Hunting, robbing, killing and then feeling bad about it. I always found myself in Saint Denis i love it there sm. RDR1 is near and dear to my heart always because it's the first game i ever played on the xbox 360 and then when RDR2 came out i didn't even watch a trailer i just bought the game and it's still in my top 3 of all time games ever ive bought it for every system i can (xbox twice, playstation, pc) and if it was ever released on switch i'd buy it there too

[inkofamethyst]

April 7, 2023

“Go to the place that will inspire the most creativity.”

Someone told me that during my visit last weekend and I think that’s going to be something that guides my decisions long into the future.

I probably won’t journal too much about the enrollment process (getting my study abroad transcript sent is already a hassle) or finding housing I guess (even though housing could very well cause me to go gray).  I’m in half a dozen facebook groups that are entirely too overwhelming, but I reached out to a few potential roommates this afternoon because I feel like that’s going to be a painful process and I want to get that done as soon as possible.  I don’t even know if I’m going about it the right way... I just don’t know.

So I was reading April 10, 2019 because I’d committed to my undergrad uni then and I was just curious what was going through my head.  I knew it was after the New York trip, and apparently there were “interesting activities” going on but I didn’t want to say at the time AND NOW I’M SO CURIOUS LIKE WHAT WAS HAPPENING???  I love gossip so much I just wanna know what past!Nina knew cuz I bet it was juicy.  That’s what came with being the Theatre Safe Space--everyone felt comfortable sharing the drama with me.  It’s probably better that I didn’t immortalize it on the internet, but ugh sometimes I wish I was a little more irresponsible than I already am.

I got rejected by my Choice C today which... I mean I’m not taking it personally at all, it’s just kind of funny.  Doesn’t really matter since I’ve committed elsewhere.  But it concludes my grad admissions journey.  Finally.  Five months later and it’s all set and done.  In about a week I’ll check in with the friends I made from other prospies along the way to see where they’re headed.  One might be in my city this fall maybe!

I’m prepping for my last trip of the semester, to a conference a ways away in a couple of weeks, and I’m admittedly cutting things a little close when it comes to my poster, but I feel okay about where I’m at.  I’m a master at cramming, so I think it’ll all turn out fine.  The main thing I’m missing is the data analysis, but I’m lacking 2/3 of the data I thought I had, so.  Unfortunately, I’m doing all of this while prepping for two exams on Tuesday (one online and open note thank god) and worrying about housing/roommates (with a whole lotta luck I may have the housing and roommate situation figured out by Tuesday, otherwise I hope to figure it out in May).

Today I’m thankful for Tylenol and also for the hangout I had with my photo-friend even though it was interrupted by some of my friends from the orchestra.  I’m thankful I went to the orchestra hangout (I was practically dragged there <3) where I learned to play some pool/billiards game and I mashed some buttons in Smash.

Quite a bit to do this weekend, but all very doable.  I should get some studying in so I’m not cramming.

[fractallogic]

I’m so annoyed with these profs because their students (and prospective students) can get away with ANYTHINGGGGGG

For one prospie, he was able to submit his application TEN DAYS LATE and the prof who wants to work with him is like “I know he’s coming from Germany but I really want him to be in person for the visit even if I have to pay for it” and I’m like well, it might be out of our fucking control, because it is literally already too late to be planning this dumbass event because of university bureaucracy, but we’re putting as much on zoom as possible!!, and she’s like “PLEASEEEEEEE an in person visit for him is so important”

And so I go groveling to the finance person who I had a very long talk to yesterday about how the timing of this event is just barely feasible and only if she submits everything to get approved, and she is very kind (and also a sweary millennial) and is like wtf okay I can do it I guess but also there’s this other thing that is very different from last year and every year before that

And I’m like oh GREAT oh ffs okay I need to take a lot of deep breaths and oh good my workout playlist just came on Spotify and Avicii’s Levels can really do wonders for my brain and reminder to me, it’s not my fault, everything is not awful, and yes, I am surreptitiously crying, but that’s only because the finance person said “oh sweetiebabycookiehoney save your anxiety for actual problems, this is not one of them”

THIS WOULDNT EVEN BE A THING IF THESE PROFS EVER GOT TOLD NO THEY CANT DO SOMETHING which I have no problem doing because (a) I have a PhD and (b) they don’t pay me enough to NOT tell them no, that is not a possible thing, but OH WELL I GUESS

[zippers]

i am SO excited for prepledge season to start, i made a discord server for our parties and we are testing it out this weekend for Halloween!! and i am so excited that my sisters are excited to try it!!!

[thestudyofdrama]

I swear every single advice I see on writing scholarship essays is the same, and most of the time, it’s just another list of questions you’ll have to write about without any guidance as to what kind of answers judges might be looking for. So here’s what I’m trying do in my current approach to planning, outlining, and writing scholarship essays

My approach (keeping in mind that I have yet to actually win any scholarship, but this is my current approach):

1) Capturing my own personality instead of ‘I deserve this scholarship because x and I want to save the world through y and this scholarship will help me because z’, because that’s not me and that’s not how I write and that’s not what I sound like

2) Having fun. I have massive perfectionist tendencies that overlap with generalized anxiety disorder. So I’m trying to be silly in my answers and have fun with my first draft, and if I need to make it Sound Professional, I can go back and do that later

3) Scouring the website of whatever organization’s scholarship I’m applying to, and writing down their core values, and adjusting my wording or answers as needed that match their values, and therefore, looking like I’m a good match for the kind of person they are looking to award the scholarship. This is mostly in regards to scholarships that are asking you to answer questions specifically about you - your goals, why you deserve their money, how the money will help you specifically.

4) Giving specific answers to questions, instead of being vague. ‘How will this scholarship help you’ ‘I can go back to school and challenge my department heads to a duel for being elitist in regards to how the department is run*. Also I can buy this specific book that will serve as the basis for my thesis but it’s been out of print for so long it’s like $500′. Idk. Something like that. *Theater departments really are like that sometimes. It’s not as inclusive or accepting as it pretends to be. If you are a prospie theater student on a college visit, take notes as to what plays they’ve done, who they are casting, and what their student body looks like. Be a Sherlock and observe.

[gretchensinister]

Prospie

I was slammed with the compulsion to write an NDU story after rewatching Rise of the Guardians on Easter. In this one, Pitch and Pitchiner (and Proto, because he lives in their apartment) are seniors who host a prospective student. They think about what it means that they’re graduating and show that maybe, just maybe, they’ve grown and changed for good at college.

This continues my take that I started in Getting to Know You, which makes this not strictly a realistic college AU.

The prospective student makes this a crossover, but I want it to be a bit of a surprise. But honestly? Who are we thinking of these days when we think Nightmare + Dork? The incoming freshman class is going to be mighty interesting...

***

“Pitchiner!” Pitch storms in from the kitchen, waving a piece of paper at him. “What. Is. This?”

Pitchiner turns to him but doesn’t get up from his seat on the couch, giving him an exasperated look. “You really went deep in your bubble this time, didn’t you? I told you like, nine hundred times that we’re going to host a prospective honors program student on their, you know, interview and visit weekend.”

“Aren’t prospective honors program students only supposed to be hosted by other honors program students?” Pitch snipes.

At this, Pitchiner does stand up. He takes two long steps closer to Pitch until he’s looming over him, his massive arms folded in front of his chest. “Dear,” he says coldly. “I am in the honors program. I’ve been in the honors program the whole time. You think I’d put up with half the shit you say to me if I didn’t know it was bullshit?”

Pitch stammers, but some deep-seated survival instinct stops him from saying anything else coherent.

Pitchiner can’t help but smirk. “Did you really think I was here on a lacrosse scholarship? God! Mr. Black, of the Massachusetts Blacks, my school did not have a lacrosse team. My scholarships are all academic.”

Pitch looks like he’s had a bucket of ice water dumped over him. “But—but—you don’t work!”

Pitchiner steps back a little from Pitch and runs his hand through his hair, sighing. “I don’t work like you do. Because I don’t think it’s healthy.”

Pitch grimaces at him. “You’ve never…” He becomes very interested in a corner of the room. “You’ve never bragged about it.”

Now Pitchiner pinches the bridge of his nose. “That’s because I’m not Piki, and Piki’s behavior towards you is fucked up, re: you guys’ accomplishments.”

Pitch has started to crumple the letter in one hand. Pitchiner watches him claim conscious control over one finger at a time until he’s holding the paper normally again, watches him tamp down whatever else might need to be said between them. “Regardless,” he says, focusing on Pitchiner again, “did the hosting committee even see our apartment before approving you as a host? Did they meet Proto? We cannot host an academically promising high school senior here. It’s unseemly.”

“I applied, and I’ll clean,” Pitchiner says. “The prospie doesn’t need to see whatever the fuck is going on in Proto’s room, or ours. He’ll sleep on the couch bed, and if I have to stay up all night to protect him from a taxidermy ferret surprise, I’ll do it.”

Pitch looks down at the unevenly faded blue couch. “I didn’t even know this was a sofa bed.” He sounds oddly distant and defeated, somehow. “I suppose you already have sheets for it.”

Pitchiner shrugs. “Nah, I was going to grab some from the superstore when I went for groceries later. You know I don’t exactly handle things like a general planning an invasion.”

“And yet you do still handle them.” Pitch still sounds weird, like if he was a flavor he’d be a warhead candy with the sour powder washed off. “But of course, you handled me having a seizure, for God’s sake, and I—I.” His fingers are twitching on the paper again.

Pitchiner places his hand on Pitch’s shoulder. “Let me know if you want to crack all this open some other time, all right? You barging in reminded me that I actually do have to start on cleaning, including fighting with Proto about whatever he’s trying to ferment on top of the fridge, because we both know he was lying when he said it was kombucha.” He lets go. “Or, hey, if you don’t want to ever crack it open, well, we’ve only got a couple more months before we graduate.”

He hadn’t really been thinking about what that meant before he said it, but now that he has said it, he and Pitch lock eyes, and Pitchiner thinks Pitch is feeling the same shock he is. Graduation. Leaving this apartment. No longer being forced into physical proximity with each other. If they wanted whatever they had with each other to continue, it couldn’t continue effortlessly or thoughtlessly. If they wanted whatever they had to continue, a lot of unspoken things would need to be said. Otherwise it wasn’t going to last longer than a futon frame propped against a dumpster on move-out day, something that had served them okay at NDU, but not something to bring away from it.

Pitchiner saw the tightness in Pitch’s jaw that usually meant he was thinking about Piki. He didn’t understand all the family baggage that Pitch and his twin carried, but he knew Piki thought of him as an unsuitable partner for Pitch, and a lot of what Pitch did he did in reaction to Piki. But now, even as he expects that tightness to lock Pitch’s jaw for good, it vanishes. “I do think we should talk,” he says. He smiles, and a little of the sour powder is back. “I really do. But maybe after the prospie is gone.”

“Yeah,” Pitchiner says. “For sure.” He grins. “Now are you gonna let me get on with being Mr. Clean or what?”

“The Brawny Man is much hotter,” Pitch fires back, but he still seems a little uneasy. “Pitchiner, our conversation for later is going to be…well, we will not be the first people to have such a conversation. But there are other things that we’ve never talked about. That, at the time, we agreed never to talk about, at least among those of us who were there. Because it wasn’t always all of us, but sometimes, enough times, it was. You know who I mean by us, don’t you?”

Pitchiner nods. “Me. You. Proto. Jack. Piki. You think we need to talk about…that stuff, too?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Pitch says. “It’s always seemed, well, risky to me to speak about even the nightmares. But as we move closer to graduation, it feels to me as if…as if they’re, I mean, as if it’s retreating somehow. Ebbing.”

“We beat it,” Pitchiner says, though he almost said ‘them,’ like Pitch.

“No,” says Pitch, “not yet. Maybe not ever, for me. But I could believe it for you.” He says this last in a rush, as if embarrassed by the feeling hidden beneath that statement. “The point is, there’s something still there. About us. Around us. We know it. And other people can tell. It was my true first thought when I saw a prospective student would be staying with us.”

“Well…” Pitchiner doesn’t like to think about the things Pitch is alluding to, for a lot of different reasons, not least that he can’t be sure if he feels relief or loss at the idea that whatever it is (whatever they are) that focused on them might be leaving them soon. Because what is there to lose? Nightmares, a bunch of shit that has to have been (has to have been) sleep paralysis, too much other stuff that you probably couldn’t take a picture of or hit with a lacrosse stick, and…more than zero things that couldn’t be explained at all. And the sense that whatever tied all these things together, he, Pitchiner, was the perfect shape for it to fill, if he wanted it. And then instead of all these things happening to him, he would happen to other people. “I guess…if the vibes get bad, let’s just agree to not waste time denying that they’re there. But if they’re really going, I think there’s a good chance the prospie might not even notice. I mean, what, his name’s Jonathan. He’s probably like, aggressively normal, or at least only weird in a smart-kid way.”

Pitch nods slowly. “If he’s supposed to hang out with us in his downtime, though…let’s not invite Jack. Just to…reduce the number of reactive elements.”

“Oh, for sure.”

***

           “My, what atrocious vibes that young man had,” Proto remarks as they wave Jon off to his car on Sunday afternoon. “But I do have the feeling that he got all his questions about NDU answered this weekend.”

           Pitchiner and Pitch glance at each other. “Yes,” Pitch says. “I…think we can be confident about that.”

           “He does make me wonder what it’s like to work in the Admissions Department,” Proto says, “but I don’t think I’ll apply. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go follow a lead for a new mold.”

           “I haven’t invited you home because he’s really the best of my relatives,” Pitch says suddenly. “Not because I don’t care.”

           “Everyone’s got relatives,” Pitchiner says vaguely. “Look, when we were just hanging out Saturday night, I kept wanting to bring up that time with the cave. And that story makes me look like I’ve lost my marbles or need an exorcism or something. I have never wanted to bring it up, ever. I don’t even want to allude to it now.”

           “For me it was that time with my shadow,” Pitch says. “But what was weirder was how pissed off I felt about wanting to talk about it. And he didn’t even ask anything that could have remotely led to that topic of conversation.”

           They lean on the railing of the steps outside their apartment and watch a few more prospective students head out, carrying orange and black folders and key chains and pens, all the promotional detritus of NDU. They look pretty normal. And why not? They are normal, right? The only slight oddity is a pair of twins, but when Pitchiner looks again he sees that the girls look nothing alike, and actually don’t even seem to know each other. He’s gotten too jumpy about doubles in his four years here. Just seeing things.

           But then, he has seen a lot of things. And so has Pitch. And Proto. And Jack. And Piki.

           “I was pissed, too,” Pitchiner says. “Not anymore, though. It left when he left. Along with the urge to spill my guts.”

           “Do you think that we…” Pitch begins, and trails off.

           “Not like that,” Pitchiner says. “Or…well, maybe.” He laughs once. “But not anymore, I think.”

           “I wonder why. Are we no longer…I hate to frame it this way, but, worthy?”

           Pitchiner gives him a funny look. “You want to be worthy of nightmares you don’t even want to talk about?”

           “When you put it that way…but I think you know what I mean.”

           Pitchiner looks across the street and over to the campus again. “I guess I do. I kinda wish I didn’t. But I gotta…I gotta be strong enough, smart enough, whatever, to recognize that it’s not good. If I want to be chosen by something weird and special, I think…I know I can do a lot better than a nightmare. You get what I’m saying?”

           “I…I hope I do,” Pitch says, soft and surprised.

           Pitchiner clears his throat. “Anyway, we don’t really know anything about any of that spooky shit. If it’s backing off, hell, maybe it’s just doing so ‘cause we’re graduating. Makes about as much sense as anything else.”

           Pitch laughs briefly. “Good thing none of us is going into academia, then.” He pauses. “Jon said his goal was to go into archival work, didn’t he?”

           Pitchiner nods.

           “Hmm. You need a graduate degree for that.”

           The spring breeze picks up for a moment, sending some autumn leaves that hadn’t been raked before it snowed scuttling down the street.

           “I think I’m glad that we’re graduating this year,” Pitchiner says.

[benz-503-wordsaday]

November 3rd, 2022

He just had too... William Gibson, gibbons and jamming late night on an Ibsen, Ibis, iris, sly and fly and stylish, pattern recognition - re: ip slash config slash migs and hornets and jets, sonic booms, fingers flying, weaving looms, loam, soil, Egyptian banks... Fit it all in: flesh in Spanxs, Spock talk, live long and prospie forever and ever, Neverland, and neuroromancer, pirouette, midnight dancers. Clocks, balk, fox trot fox trot. Blood clots, crib talk, baby babble/saber rattle, tiger tooth and whiskey tango, go, go.   At the point in my mathing where I'm finally encountering squiggles. Similar deep sigh, big exhale, and bewilderment middle school me felt upon discovering imaginary numbers and letters in equations (nbd tbh). Squiggle functions and equations named like streets and theaters after remarkable humans. Head hurting, but it's pretty awesome stuff. Shout out to engineers and physicists. I feel like an absolute dummy.   [------] Finally worked through my first fourier series example equation. Simple triangle function. Ouch. Oof. Math muscles very weak. Trigonometry, integrations, derivations, series, fractions... Time to make amends with old foes.   Year 5 - Benny Z and the Order of the Arkys Wish me luck.   First Attempt at Poetry em Portuguese Esta sonhei com fantasmas, eles disseram, 'gostava de ir com vocês mas não posso.' Novamente, eu acordei com apenas nós, em nossa cama viva. - BZ August 12th, 2022 Ben, Neb, Zen, Beez, and Benjamin missed repenting in the hidden digital public confessional. They missed the sorting and disentangling of thoughts, impressions, impulses, reactions, responses, ideas, hunches, feelings, experiences, sights, moments, interactions, and recollections that constituted waking conscious life. Something to the offloading of the open tabs - cache is king - of the mental landscape. Reviewing (gerund) Portuguese Grammar workbook and re-remembering one of the two things Ms. Stemmler said that are still indelible in the hippocampus. It was Sophomore year first period Spanish, second year, and we were learning or trying to learn how to conjugate verbs. After the worksheets were handed out she foreshadowed the complexity of the language and in a under the breath type of toss away comment said something to the effect of, ‘if you finish these worksheets don’t worry there are nineteen more tenses to learn.’ It was one of those hammer blows to an insecure student not yet comfortable with trying hard on something challenging. There were only three tenses, I’d thought, past, present, future, what could the other sixteen conjugations be about? The memory was stored in the circuit responsible for maintaining subtle hints from teachers alluding to what we don’t know about what we don’t know and recalling it must have jostled another electric impression, the time Ms. Taylor, beloved third grade teacher with a convertible, mentioned the oxford comma and the grammatical controversy surrounding its use or the lack of it. How could a ten year old imagine legions of prescriptivist and descriptivist grammarians savagely debating a punctuation mark? The mother tongue lives in the heart and habit, not yet cerebral and if it sounds right, if it reads right, it’s right whether or not anyone done got anything nice or nasty to say about it. Cookie Monster be eating cookies. A smidge of pidgin, the language arts neglected and the language of the other left unknown and unfelt and like certain fungus fear grows best in the damp and dark. They snatched children. Took them from their families. Boisterous warriors bragging about going medieval on so-and-so and a abstract understanding of the nature of the world that provides moral justification for brutal acts prevents a corrosive cognitive dissonance and what are guilt and shame and what is wrong and right and what is good and evil and who gets to be human and how many truly believe in an ontologically level playing field. Past more than perfect tense, an action in the past completed before another action. Gerund form, -ing, running, walking, thinking, talking. Past perfect: they had done what needed doing. She had loved to the best of their ability. In that same Spanish class one student jumped out the window and went to Starbucks when the teacher wasn’t paying attention. The Spanish teacher from Mexico cried in class when I was in 7th grade and the Iranian chemistry teacher cried my Freshman year when one of the students spewed some vitriol and it was embarrassing to be associated with him, though I didn’t confront him or call him out. Melting pot or quilted patchwork of cultures or something else entirely. 

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

Made something for my prospies

[tales-of-a-senior-smithie]

10 Things That I Know Now That I Wish I Knew When I Was an Incoming First Year

So It’s getting close to the end of the summer (I personally go back to campus for my junior year in alittle over a week for Bridge) so I wanted to give some advice to anyone who needs it whether you are an incoming first year, a prospie, or even an upperclass-person who comes across this post. Here are some things that I know now that I wish I knew when I was an incoming first year (as the title suggests lol). These things are not at all in order of importance.

1. Your overall health is soooo important- I think that this is the most important thing I have learned during my time at Smith so far. I’m not gonna lie college is hard and can get stressful. Smith is not an exception to this. An honest summary of my sophomore year was me learning this. No matter what you are doing, it is so important to remember is that There is Only One You. You cannot be replaced so it is so important for you to take care of yourself ( physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, etc.) no matter what. 

2. Your grades do not define you- I am gonna be honest and admit that I obsess and stress over grades. I have been conditioned to have this mentality since elementary school so I’m still trying to unlearn this. Even though grades matter, they do not define who you are as a person nor do they tell the whole story of you, your victories, your struggles, your hard work, and the amazing person you are. To emphasize this here is a really awesome video from the Wurtele Center for Work and Life (created by Bea Grossman) where Smithies, including myself, share the worst grade they have ever received, either at Smith or before Smith 

3. Use your resources- Smith has A LOT of resources. Whether you need funding (here is the list of available funding from the 2016-2017 school year), community, stress relief, health/wellness support, academic support or anything else you could need. Use those resources whenever you can. There are so many people and places at Smith that want to help you not only survive but thrive.

4. Don’t overload yourself- There are so many amazing things to do at Smith. Between the amazing classes to take, organizations to join, speakers to hear, activities to go to, people to hangout with, etc. it can be very easy to overwhelm yourself because you want to do EVERYTHING. However, there are only 24 hours in a day and SLEEP IS ESSENTIAL. So in order to not overwhelm yourself, prioritize what you want to do and remember to take time for yourself to relax. If you do get overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to ask for help talk to someone, say no to somethings, ask for an extension, go to office hours, etc. Always remember to take care of yourself.

5. Self-Care- #4 is a nice segue-way into this next point. Self-Care is soooooooo important!! I cannot emphasize this enough. Taking time to do what you need to to take care of yourself is so essential for both life at Smith (or in college in general) and life in general. Everyone does different things in order to self care. Going to the gym and working out, reading a book that you enjoy, knitting, hanging out with friends, taking a nap, are just a small list of the endless amount of things someone could possibly do in order to self-care. I just want to emphasize again Self Care is soooo important.

6. Don’t be afraid to change houses- I came into Smith with the mentality that I wanted to live in the same house for all four years for sentimental reasons. However, when I was living in my first house the longer I lived there the less I felt like I fit in but I was afraid to move. During that time I was also always in my current house (a lot of my friends were living there and the other residents of the house welcomed me with open arms even though I didn’t live there) Some other things happened in my old house and in the world and I finally decided that it was time for me to start living my best life, do what makes me happy, and do what was (and still is) best for me. It was time for me to move. I am so happy that I did and to be living in a house where I feel comfortable, welcomed, and safe. You can move and it is okay to move to a house where you will be happier, feel safer, and/or more comfortable.

However for incoming first years and new students (or future ones) who are not happy with their housing assignments, my advice is to go in with an open mind. Get a feel for what your house, housemates, and house community are like before you put in that room change form. Who knows you may fall in love with it. If you don’t, that’s okay. You can move and it is okay to move to a house where you will be happier, feel safer, and/or more comfortable. 

7. Go to Office Hours- When I first got to Smith, I was TERRIFIED of talking to teachers so the thought of going to office hours was even more terrifying. However I learned slowly my first year and then really quickly my sophomore year how important and even really great going to office hours can be. One thing that I say on tours that I have found to be extremely true is that your professors want to get to know you and they genuinely care about you. That’s the awesome thing about having smaller class sizes, you are not just a number to your professors. You can get to know them and they can get to know you. Going to office hours can also help you TREMENDOUSLY when you are struggling. My sophomore year (especially during second semester) my mental health declined and among other things my academics suffered. Going to office hours, talking to my professors, and being open with them about what was going on was ESSENTIAL. Because they knew what was going on and I kept the lines of communication open, they were able to more effectively. They were part of the reason why I got decent grades and survived academically and in general. They were willing to work with me and help me succeed.

8. Get off Campus- If you are not from Western Massachusetts it can be very easy to stay in the ‘Smith Bubble’. Once you get to know Smith’s campus, leaving campus and going into downtown Northampton or into the surrounding towns can seem scary. DO IT ANYWAY!! Go on adventures either by yourself or with your friends. Go into town (Go to Herrells at anytime or Glazed after 10pm for 1 dollar donuts) or look at the bus schedule and hop on the PVTA (heads up for all of my Chipotle lovers the B43 takes you near Chipotle. Pro tip: get off at Walmart and then walk across and then when you are ready to go back to Smith the bus stop is right in front of Chipotle). Visit the other 4 colleges in the 5 College Consortium (Mount Holyoke College, Hampshire College, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Amherst College). Learn how to get to them because it is helpful to know how to get there and because you may need to go to them for a wide range of reasons.

9. Get involved- This isn’t so much something that I learned at Smith but I have had emphasized at Smith. Outside of Bridge and the houses I have lived in, joining clubs and organizations are how I have made a lot of my friends. You’ll meet people who have the same interests as you, people who understand your experiences, etc. who you might not have met otherwise. Another awesome thing about getting involved is that you get to meet a lot and kind of get to know people in Smith’s administration as well as possibly guest speakers that your organization may bring to campus. I have met a lot of really awesome people just through getting involved. Getting involved also gets you out of the house and potentially off campus so in summary, GET INVOLVED!!!

10. Use your first year classes to explore what your interests are- When I was an incoming first year, I came in thinking I was going to be a Psychology and Dance double major. I am currently doing none of those things (I am not majoring in either of those things and am not double majoring). When I took a psychology class my first semester, I realized that being a psych major was not for me. So I explored and took Intro to SWAG, LOVED IT, and decided that that was going to be my major. Taking a class that where I did not know what to expect in terms of what we would be learning was the best thing and helped me find a major and a minor that I love in departments where I also feel very supported.

Cush Love <3 

-Bri ‘19

[serendipitous-smithie]

Hi I saw your post about class registration and I noticed that you signed up so you could get credit for backstage work? That's super intriguing because I am a prospie doing tech theater at my high school and I would love to continue it in college so I'm interested to hear about your experiences with it!

Hey! So I ended up dropping this class because of health reasons, but I can tell you the general aspects of the class! You sign up during registration (or after the general meeting) and at the general meeting you fill out a form listing which jobs you’d be most interested in doing and what previous experience you have. First years are near the top for preference for jobs so if this is something you’re interested in definitely try to sign up during your first year if you have the time. The jobs include lighting design and operator, tech and set design, running crew, dressers, working in the costume shop, stage managing and nearly every theatre related job you could imagine. Most of the positions require a specific two hour period a week when everyone is working together, but that time changes every year. A lot of positions don’t have set schedules, but it can be quite a time commitment depending on what you’re interested in doing.

If that doesn’t seem quite like something you’d be interested in, there is also quite a few beginning and intermediate level tech courses through the theatre program. 

All of the tech positions are for student productions that happen at different times throughout the semester, so if you’re more free later in the semester or would rather start sooner you sign up to be on an individual show (usually, although some positions are season long).

Let me know if you have any more questions! Hope to see you around Smith next year

Hazel

[nooritothedoorito-blog]

My love story

Now, this post isn’t as exciting in the way that you might think it is. This is the story of how I fell in love with Smith College.

My sister advised my to apply to Smith during the college application process because it was free. I still remember Smith’s Supplemental essay question because it was the most unique one I had encountered out of all twelve schools I had applied to. The question asked us to write about a moment where something made us laugh. Right away, I knew that Smith was different from other colleges. It wasn’t a school that was necessarily geared toward the students with the best test scores or grades, but students who Smith knew could foster to make a difference in this world.

Smith accepted me early, even though I didn’t apply for early acceptance. They sent me a t-shirt, so that was kind of rad. During the spring, they flew me in for Discovery Weekend, and that’s how I knew that Smith was the right choice for me. My host was Areej, who was a senior and also a Pakistani-American Muslim. She was very open to all of my questions and gave me great advice. And I know that she greatly shaped how I saw this school, which is why I plan on hosting a prospie during Discovery Weekend as well.

These are just a few aspects of Smith that I loved:

-Paradise Pond

-Botanical garden

-Cutter-Z House

-Al-Iman Muslim Student Association

-The environment

-The small campus

-Downtown Northampton restaurants & shops

-The people

-The dearth of boys

For all you first-year prospies out there, I really hope you consider Smith as your home for the next four years!

[inkofamethyst]

April 2, 2023

And now, after all these months, I know for almost [edit, two days later: sorry that was the anxiety at it again] certain where I’m going to be in the fall.

AAAAAAAAAAAAA IM SO HAPPY AND RELIEVED mostly relieved tbh buT ALSO SUPER DUPER EXCITED

The school is gorgeous, the people are lovely in so many ways, the city is alive...  I am so excited to be there.  The visit was... interesting.  The lab and PI and prospies in my cohort were great!  I met one faculty member who was... a character.  He’s either really out of touch or so down to earth that he speaks in hard truths... or maybe something else.  Either way, I’m lowkey glad I didn’t end up applying to work with him lol.  I think he’d be a fantastic advisor and would set me up, but I feel like our personalities would clash too much.  ANYWAY.  A lot of the prospectives especially outside my cohort are coming from high-tier institutions around the world which was wild to hear about.  I didn’t feel intimidated though!!  It just kind of felt surreal to be there, honestly.

I don’t really have the intellectual bandwidth to go through it all right now, so I’m not going to bother describing the visit.  I got a sweatshirt in a color I look amazing in and I love that.

Today I’m thankful that my admissions cycle is practically finished.  I’m thankful that I really liked my Choice E!  I was so afraid that I’d overhyped the program but it actually seems great.  It seems like a launchpad, sure, but also somewhere supportive where I could thrive.

Now I have to figure out housing, but I also have to somehow muster up the strength to finish up this last semester of my undergraduate schooling.  I have exams and projects and lectures and all sorts to finish up before I can breathe, but all I want to do is be done with it all.

[letsgomaybe]

April 22

I went to the March for Science! I wore my MSA shirt since it’s the only thing remotely science-y that i own. A lot of people were wearing lab coats and I was disappointed I didn’t think of that!

The turnout was massive. It was great to be surrounded by people all fighting for the same cause. The speeches at the rally were good. It took forever to get out of the starting plaza since there were so many people, but once I was out it was easy to move. I didn’t go the whole way since I knew there would be a massive amount of people trying to get out of the city once the march finished, so I took bart back about halfway through.

Today was also Cal Day, which I guess is like prospie week? I’m not sure if the prospective students can stay overnight here. There were hordes of people on campus; it was amazing. I didn’t stick around too long.

I finally decided to do something about the wart, since I looked past the first few results of pictures showing really awful, disgusting warts and found some that looked very similar to mine. I have my duct tape and my thumb is all wrapped up. It’s very difficult to keep it on since it’s at the tip of my finger. I tried using a bunch of small strips and that didn’t work, so I’m now trying the lifehacks method for a bandaid--cut a vertical strip in the two sides and bend those around the finger. I did kind of a sloppy job of it but it seems pretty sturdy so far. If this works I’m going to try it on the weird thing on my palm that I’ve had for ages. I saw some pictures that look like it--it’s not white like my thumb warts, but it does sometimes get the little black dot of a blood vessel. I fiddle with it sometimes and I’m 50% sure that’s how I got the thumb warts in the first place--I’d bitten the tip of my thumb so there was an open wound, then came in direct contact with the palm wart.