Rachael Humphrey
A Letter from the Mistress My first ‘Mistress’s Letter’ comes with a hefty sprinkling of enthusiasm after a fantastic year absorbing, enjoying and throwing myself into the huge array of activities that characterise Girton. This is without doubt the busiest, buzziest college I’ve ever experienced. Arriving at Girton was a (happy) baptism of fire: a tea-drinking marathon as I met every single fresher face-toface; a majestic ceremony and dinner to mark my installation; a moving commemoration of benefactors; a dinner to mark our foundation; a robeflowing ceremony to admit Scholars, Exhibitioners and Fellows; a joyful party for new Fellows; not to mention the students cheerfully including me in their Freshers’ Week events: GADS showing no mercy in their opening musical as they ribbed the new Mistress (alongside the perennial character of the wicked plotting Bursar). There were myriad choir performances; research presentations; JCR yoga; apple harvesting; football matches…I could go on. Surely the College could not keep up this pace? Yes it could! That initial fortnight of non-stop drama turned out to be merely the opening curtain on what was to be a fantastic year-long play in three very active acts: Michaelmas, Lent and Easter, plus a lengthy curtain call as our international
The Year
3
