Julie Parker
- Staff
When I was in middle school, I attended summer camp on the Wellesley College campus. My favorite activity by far was walking into “the Vil,” also known as the center of town, to buy candy at CVS and taste independence for the first time.
Twenty-five years later, I joined the Wellesley Centers for Women as a staff member, and a few months ago, a coworker and I headed to a restaurant in town for lunch. I assumed we were driving, but she said, “It’s such a nice day, let’s walk.” And so I found myself walking from the Wellesley campus into the Vil again for the first time in decades. CVS is gone, but the walk is still beautiful—filled with birdsong and sunlight peeking through the trees—and still a bit of a thrill.
