Setting the tone

2023 IS FEELING special already. It wasn’t too long ago I was a 17-year-old fresher moving into my first Langley room, equally nervous and excited. My mum dropped me off half an hour before the welcome lunch started and said “YOLO, you’ll be fine.” And despite that brief encouragement, she was right. But it took a bit of time.

These years of our lives can be a little confusing. While in pursuit of finding our passions in life we tend to fall into a habit of juggling 25 things at once, and it can be draining. I do a double degree of graphic design and finance, so I am constantly confused about the direction my life will take. But ever since I was little, I have been encouraged to just try things out, a let’s get weird mindset.

This adventurous instinct seems to deteriorate as we get older, as we become more conscious of what people think. Other people’s expectations can get the better of us in our late teens and early twenties. I see this judgment in the College scene too. Everyone has an opinion on what College is supposed to look like, whether that’s from newspapers, College alumnae, or our friendly neighbours on campus. And we get the constant questions. Are we really like Diana Reid’s Love & Virtue? Do we all actually like salads and yoga? Why does a College of entirely women need to even exist anymore?

As someone peering in you would probably think our answer would consist of our events, the dining hall menu, our academic grind, all those predictable responses. But there’s a little bit more to it, a little bit more hiding in the spaces between.

Women’s is morning walks to Ralph’s Café, with or without a little head noise. It’s giggling in the bathroom at the Formal as you compliment each other’s dresses. It’s the morning debriefs on your friends’ balcony and going to lunch in your pyjamas because you’ve missed your alarm again. It’s your friends bringing you food and medicine when you are sick. Or proofreading one another’s assignments 15 minutes before they’re due. It’s recording yourself at 2am to audition for Palladian dance, despite zero experience in that field. It is everything and anything in between. It is the moments that aren’t typically advertised. College is simply what you make of it, and the people you are surrounded by. The people here are what make the experience, and you only meet them by putting yourself out there a little bit.

My resolution for this year is to be resilient and to be brave. As women, I feel we are always told to be gracious, but it is equally integral to remain passionate and to make a bit of noise. That’s how we grow and how we connect with people. And as for Women’s College, we are proud to be a culture of women who don’t do things for the sake of comparison but for the sake of ourselves and for the sake of the people we love. We are a home, and I am so excited for the year ahead.

JADE RICHARDSON SENIOR STUDENT