Erin's Blog Post (I'm sorry I couldn't think of a funny title they were all corny)

Hello friends! I hope course registration went swimmingly for you all, and that all the loose ends get tied up very soon!

So this is the start of themed posts for our blog, in an attempt to rectify the "lukewarm" nature of recent, socially distant posts. Thanks Naoni for suggesting this idea, I'm really into it :^)

Theme The First, dear readers, is: Hopes for Senior Year

I feel a little funny starting off this topic because to be quite honest, my biggest hope for senior year is just that next year will be my senior year. I hope it doesn't seem like I'm being willfully cynical about this all or anything, but after 2 months of emails with the registrar and class dean's office, I'm pretty much okay with the increasingly likely possibility that I will be class of 2022J. I finally was able to submit my petition last week though, so with any luck, I'll know for certain within the next two weeks. I'm still hopeful that I will be able to fulfill the graduation requirements by the end of May, but I just feel like with how crazy this year has been (I feel like every time someone has said to me, "Oh x definitely won't happen," x has definitely happened), I feel like it's better to just assume that I won't graduate on time.

With that said, it's a little hard for me to really imagine what senior year might look like. Some of my academic plans have gotten thrown a bit out of wack - dropping my minor, not sure if I can apply for a thesis anymore - so now I feel like I'm just trying to focus on being sure that I can actually finish my major and take some classes I've been meaning to take before I graduate.

But anyway, that's all academic-y stuff, which yes, I suppose is important at a school we're paying a pretty penny to go to, but it's not really the stuff I'm most looking forward to about going back to Smith. What I'm most looking forward to, honestly, is just seeing my friends again and making fun memories before we graduate.

I have some specific aspirations for senior year. Like, I really want to go Mass MoCA, and the Montague Bookmill, and the Five College Film Festival (hi Laura if you're reading), and I'm excited for our last Night at Your Museum and other goofy traditions like that. But more than that, I'm looking forward to, like, going to Miss Saigon randomly on a Saturday night and watching 90 Day Fiance with Aboni and May and Isabel, and scrambling to put together weekly playlists with Caitlin the night before our show, and having probably a dozen or so existential crises on Emma's floor, and blowing campus cash on mudslides two weeks into the semester, and doing weird stuff with Naoni like choreographing waacking routines, and starting random new hobbies with friends, like Rachel and Alexis and I trying to learn flags together.

After a year away, I miss a lot of things about Smith. These are the kind of things that I remember most fondly, and the kind of stuff that I think I'll probably be thinking about years after I graduate, you know.

The idea of people graduating makes me sad, because to be honest, I'm not great at keeping in touch with people. But I think what this last year has made me realize (especially with this whole crazy coronavirus stuff) is that I need to really make the most of the time that I have with the people that I love and care about. That's a super corny thing to say, but sometimes corny things are true, I think. Anyway, it's just like, college is such a weird time. When, later on, are you going to get to live so close to so many friends all together like that?

Probably, after I graduate, I won't keep in touch with a lot of people. So I need to appreciate the time we have left together while I still can. My big personal hopes for senior year are just to enjoy the time I have left at Smith and try not to sweat the small stuff (how's that for corny) and make some fun wacky memories while everyone's all together.

Oh! And I'm starting a movie club (like, among friends not an org) next year, about which you all will receive emails in due time (probably like the end of the summer though). Be on the lookout :^)

And don't forget the dance crew I'm starting. We're all gonna look like this guy by the end of the year