Lesson 2: I don’t want to brush my teeth by myself
by Magdalena Georgieva

We were brushing our teeth together, toothpaste dripping down our mouths and eyes glued on the bathroom mirror, when it hit me: I will probably never again brush my teeth with so many friends.

I came to love the evenings when residents of the third floor of Mead would flock into the bathroom to get ready for bed or merely try to refresh for another session of studying. These moments of teeth-brushing and face-washing had shaped a fun social experience: we talked about how our days went, how many papers we had yet to craft and how nurturing the new Garnier Fructis shampoo was. But after May 23, I will have to part with this precious tradition of casual bathroom conversations.

The funny thing is, until now, I had been looking forward to having my own private bathroom. Now that my studies at Mount Holyoke will be over, I am not that sure anymore. I learned that I just don’t want to brush my teeth by myself.

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Lesson 3: I never stop learning
by Samantha Silver

It’s weird realizing that I won’t be in school anymore after the next couple of weeks. I can’t remember a time when my life wasn’t consummed by papers, exams, and an endless supply of scholarly articles. While many of my friends are headed on to grad school programs and fellowships, I’m not entirely sure where I’ll be in the next year, or what I’ll be doing. It’s ironically scary knowing that whatever comes next in my life, it won’t be graded, checked or covered in red pen. Whatever I choose to reach for or accomplish is entirely up to me, and (thankfully) it won’t affect my GPA.

I’ve realized that I might actually fall behind in avant-garde film or the latest hubub in feminist theory. Living in a world where I don’t need to write a thesis statement or fill in a little blue booklet sounds so upsurd, and yet, I’m quite fond of the idea. While whatever I take on may not be in any syllabus or course catalog, it’s all part of learning process. Just because school is over for me right now, doesn’t me I’ll stop learning.

Nobel prize winning physicist Rosalyn Yallow once said: “The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you’re learning, you’re not old.” And when I come back to MHC for my second-year or fiftieth reunion, there are still plenty of stories that I’ll have to share with my friends here. Stories about the places of places I’ve seen, things I’ve done. But while I know that I’m learning something new all the time, being in a classroom with familiar faces (whether grief-stricken or enticed) makes learning those lessons all the more worth having.

Lesson 4: My Life is (Kind of) like The Hills
by Joanna Arcieri

Given that I have been the Arts and Entertainment editor for two years, you should not be surprised that I often compare my life to The Hills. Not necessarily this season of The Hills, because that means I am either Kristen or Heidi, and I neither want to be in an “it’s complicated” relationship with Brody Jenner nor have had so much plastic surgery that my face resembles someone on a TLC special. My life is oddly like Lauren Conrad’s circa seasons three, four and five (I think; there is so much pointless action in this show I frequently get confused by the non-existent plot lines.) After countless episodes of Speidi making Lauren’s life miserable as she tried to make it in Los Angeles, Lauren finally moved on to something better. In her case, she became a best-selling author of a series about a girl who ends up on a reality show, whose best friend goes bonkers and her life is changed. (Yes, it’s deep.)

In my case, I went from having a miserable high school experience that left me too afraid to participate in class to having a panic attack in the Admissions Office when I was 17 because the thought of college was too much for me to handle to attending Mount Holyoke, joining the newspaper, writing a thesis, graduating, and, well, who knows.

I actually have no idea how my life resembles The Hills. I’ve never been on a reality show (although I foresee an episode of Jersey Shore in my future). I’ve never even been to California. But what I like about The Hills is that this show is a spinoff of Laguna Beach when Lauren Conrad was just in high school. Then she went off into the big real(ity) world and survived. And in her final appearance on The Hills, five years later, she left us with some (surprisingly) wise words of wisdom about her future, “For the first time, in a long time, I really don’t know.” For some reason, I think this applies to my life, and for once I’m looking forward to not knowing what is ahead.

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