| | With spring break only four days away a lot is happening at Smith. Academically, it is midway through the semester and that means papers and exams galore. Just this week I have a paper and a midterm, and most of my friends have substantially more. All the professors want to make sure you understand what you’ve learned so far this semester before you head off for some warm location and forget it all. (Well, I hope it’s a warm location for my fellow students at any rate. For me, it’s New Jersey and the oral surgeon to get my wisdom teeth out, and let me tell you, I can think of about a hundred things I would rather do with a week off.)
But before everyone begins worrying that college is just about the worst thing ever to be created, I would like to add that there are a number of other things happening on campus at this time of year. To begin with, a majority of the lovely sophomores, myself included, are hearing back from our varied JYA (Junior Year Abroad) programs. Smith sends a ton of students away to study all across the world every year and has one of the highest rates for students spending a full year away. I know people currently spending the year in France, the UK, Denmark, Greece, Brazil, etc. I’m going to go ahead and cut myself off before I get all caught up in a bunch of statistics that will just come out of a pamphlet from the admissions office anyway, and instead I’ll talk about the program I was recently accepted to. In addition to the programs abroad, Smith offers a 12-college exchange which lets us go to a number of other small liberal arts colleges in the United States. One of these programs is Williams-Mystic, where I will be spending my next semester. It’s run jointly through Williams College and Mystic Seaport and takes place mostly in Mystic Connecticut. I’ll also be doing boat trips in the Atlantic, Pacific, and the Gulf of Mexico, and taking classes in Oceanography, Marine Policy, Literature, and History. In case I didn’t already mention this, I’m pretty excited. Well, jumping for joy, screaming and shouting, running around excited actually. Similar to the way I was when I got into Smith, except that time it was in a restaurant in NYC and this time it’s only in my dorm room. In any case, I’m definitely not alone in my excitement since most of the rest of the sophomore class is getting similar news.
Now, if you’re thinking that perhaps the sophomores are the only ones having fun this week then think again because the excitement of Friday night was open to everyone. What excitement might that be? Sexhibition, a purely Smith phenomenon, at least I assume. It is, in essence, an exhibition of student art including photographs, paintings, and sculptures. The trick, it’s all about sex. Held every year on the second floor of the campus center, Sexhibition celebrates women’s bodies and their beauty in diversity. This year’s exhibit was followed by an after party hosted by the Radio station, WOZQ.
It’s definitely a crazy time of year.
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