I came to UNH because it was where I wanted to be.
Thousands of dollars and four years later, I am graduating on Saturday a leading expert in my field with two majors and a minor. I was pretty damn right.
If you had told me in Fall 2006 that I would study at Cambridge University, accidentally fall in love with linguistics, meet some of the greatest and most interesting people, get involved in social justice work, do groundbreaking research, and be accepted into and be going into a PhD program by spring 2010... well, I wouldn't have believed you.
I started out as an English major, though very torn between all sorts of academic interests. I had almost came in as a music major, though I knew that was not what I wanted to do. I toyed with philosophy (this was short-lived) and communication (one huge lecture class changed that). I secretly wanted to be a Women's Studies major, but they seemed crazy-intense and they scared me a lot. So I stuck to English, because I like reading and would be given booklists of stuff I actually wanted to read.
As I grew more and more jaded with writing papers on symbolism, I accidentally signed up for a class called The Secret Lives Of Words (yes, really); immediately after that I declared linguistics as a minor and started exploring the etymology of words within the context of literature - explaining the validity of my approach was an endlessly frustrating process. When I got back from England in the Fall of 2008 (a serendipitous mistake unto itself, I meant to go in 2009) and realized I had two more years to do something with myself, I added linguistics as a major. It was through a similar happy accident that I minored in Race/Culture/Power and found myself in Women's Studies classes, wondering if I missed the boat entirely on my passions.
And then I started my independent research. The more I worked on it, the more I knew this truly is what I want to do for a long time.
I will never forget first stepping onto this campus for Freshman orientation and hating every second of it...and coming back in the fall to live with a huge group of people I couldn't relate to and didn't want to live with. I remember sitting there, miserable in Williamson 519. But I will also never forget the feeling of being dropped into a great big new world of interesting people to meet... and meet them I did. Although SERC C in all of its shiny hotel-esque glory has permanently erased what truly was my first home on campus, I haven't quite left the mini dorms behind. To all my friends out in Mini Dorm Land, past and present: Thanks for the trials, the tribulations, the inside jokes, and the quirks nobody else will ever quite appreciate.
Though I am saddened by the fact I will not be in New Hampshire this summer and beyond, it's for the best. I don't think I could bear knowing that I'm so close, but not entirely here. Merely being here is part of the experience: HoCo Radio, walking through the MUB, the way Ham Smith smells like old books, Ham Smith Room 128, the T-Hall bells, my summer-research-desk-cubicle on the 5th floor in the Dimond Library, the way the sun hits all the trees on campus every day - even on rainy days, lying in the grass wasting time, the way that the other parts of campus feel like a different universe unto themselves, all the people I didn't get a chance to meet, and even the biddies and bros (okay, maybe not so much) - I will miss every aspect of my four years here.
To everyone that matters: I love you all a lot. It's been so incredible to meet the people we are today. Thanks for making my undergrad experience amazing.
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