Five years ago to date, I graduated from Wesleyan. Who the hell was I even on that day? Petrified? Mentally exhausted? Hopeful? All of the above & more. Mostly, I was completely unaware of how much my life had been altered by those four years.

The first words I ever wrote about Wes were: “Day one has come and gone and I survived. Not only survived, I thrived. I absolutely love this place. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but it’s completely true.” It’s funny how telling that became.

Wes became the second place I ever called home. It was a place that sparked a fire in me. A place I found a community of activists & artists, WOCO, a tribe, and a first love. I remember picking Wesleyan for all the most ridonkulous reasons (none of which I would recommend to people making big life decisions – or who cares, do what you want). After academics, my top reasons were:

• It had the same name as one of my favorite characters (so you know, fate!)
• The Gilmore Girls made a quaint town in the middle of Connecticut look pretty hilarious
• It was different from the Bahamas in EVERY way possible (jackpot!)

These were my actual reasons. Literally, in that order. Why do we even let 17 year olds make life decisions? But no one could’ve told me different. When I realized Joss Whedon had gone there, there was no better stamp of approval. I had made the best decision possible using the most ridonkulous criteria possible.

And I’ve never regretted it. For all its pitfalls (poorly-veiled racism, losing classmates to terrible acts of violence, unbridled anxiety, loneliness, tears, and sooo many all nighters) it become home. Complicated, messy and difficult to love at times. But always home. The extraordinary people we survived and thrived with made it that way. Now that I reflect, I’ve realized that it’s incredible how much a place and its people can challenge and change you in a really good way.

Although I couldn’t be at our fifth year reunion this weekend, know that my heart is there.

“It’s interesting because that is the thing that you don’t realize. That there’s something completely artificial about the way college is; the way going away to some experience like that is. You’re together inside this pressure cooker situation for this period of time and under those conditions you get very, very close in ways that you wouldn’t have otherwise. And then it comes just to an end, like you come to a cliff. And it’s just like, okay now it’s over. And when that happens, it’s very powerful.” – Felicity

Photo credits: http://wesleying.org/2015/05/24/liveblog-wesleyan-commencement-2015/ and https://www.facebook.com/wesleyan.university/photos/?tab=album&album_id=342993924994