Natalie Jin ’18

Wellesley laughter amidst the muggy late-summer night. A sustainability-bin fan buzzing while August crickets chirp. We never identified when they sing their last song. It was ever so loud, then pure silence by snowfall.

It’s 2017. Cazenove Hall. Top floor. The turret rooms. Our blocking group hit the housing lottery. This enclave becomes our senior year reprieve.

Under the twinkle of Christmas string lights serving their last tour of duty in our freshly decorated senior dorms, the noise of youth filled every corner. It’s also our last tour.

Remix (do we still go?!). Finally, all 300-levels, no more grade deflation (you youngins wouldn’t know). Anticipation. Excitement. Fear. What comes after this territory we just barely conquered?

Now, 7 years out, the world isn’t scary. It’s exhilarating.

Yet I am ever so nostalgic for those August nights when the crickets sang and the noise of youth felt like it’d last forever.