Being mall rats with two other Swatties
Quakers all summer long!
Watching the sunset
It’s hard to believe, but summer’s just about over. The new first years moved in today, and I’ll be back at Swarthmore on Saturday! I’m sorry to see it go, and a little nervous to get back to working, but at the same time I can’t wait to reunite with my friends and have a whole new set of adventures.
Of course, my summer wasn’t boring either. I went to my cousin’s graduation from college and my brother’s graduation from eighth grade. He went to the same school I did, and in a way it felt like my whole family was graduating from there. In early June, my friend Miriam came to New Jersey to visit me and our friend Linda for the weekend. On Saturday we went to New York, where we pretended to be Eloise in The Plaza, ate delicious Chinese food, called the police to report domestic violence, blew our life savings in The Strand, and generally behaved like Swatties. The next day we bummed around the local mall, eating pretzels and trying on prom dresses.
In July, I worked at the Friends Historical Library and lived in Mary Lyon, the pretty off-campus dorm that’s home to my friends Quitterie and Mariah during the year. I had worked for the Friends Library during the spring semester, doing transcription of a diary from 1834, but over the summer I did more hands-on archiving work. It wasn’t the kind of job I was expecting, but it was still interesting and it was the sort of thing I could imagine getting involved in as a career. I definitely learned a lot, and living on campus over the summer let me hang out with my friend Hannah and some new people. Along the way, between road tripping down to her house for a weekend and late night runs to McDonald’s to satisfy her craving for fries and my McFlurry addiction, we managed to have a really fun time, despite the humid 100 degree weather and lack of air conditioning.
I was also lucky enough to spend time this summer going on trips with my family. We had a reunion at the beach with my dad’s Uncle Dick and Aunt Arlene, and my mom, brother, stepfather and I spent a week in Nantucket. My two best friends from middle school and I also got to spend some quality time at various diners and restaurants, the pool, and our old school. One of them, Jenn, came to visit me while I was at Swarthmore and we went to the Liberty Bell and Constitution Center. There was an exhibit at the Constitution Center about Ancient Rome and America, where we got free foam swords. Our ensuing dueling was a thing of beauty.
Along the way, I wrote two articles for the Orientation issue of The Phoenix, read more books than I did all school year, went to Dorney Park with my family, and mastered tetris. Summer well spent. 
To summarize this rather sprawling post: After just about the best summer I could have hoped for, I think I’m about ready to head back to Swat. I’ve missed a lot about college, and I’ve found that I can transition well between my life at home and at school. I’m sure in mid-October, when my brain is crammed with Spanish, Hebrew, Linguistics and Anthropology, I’ll be more than ready to take another break at home. But for now, I’m looking forward to Saturday.
