For some reason, I have been talking a lot about Ohio lately.  I love Ohio.  I love Cincinnati, where I grew up.  I hope, deep down, that some day I will end up back there – if not right away.

When I first came to Holy Cross, being from Ohio made me a novelty.  Everyone I met was from New England – I was an outsider, and I had a little bit of culture shock and a lot to learn.  When I first started this blog, I did so to share my perspective as an “outsider”.  But now, four years later, things have changed.  I don’t talk about my Ohio-ness so often anymore.  I don’t feel like a tourist or an outsider.  Holy Cross is my home – along with Worcester, along with Massachusetts, along with New England.

This past weekend we had Senior Ball.  It’s essentially prom for college students – we get all dressed up, we go to the DCU Center in town, we eat a fancy dinner, and we dance all night.  It was awesome.  About three-quarters of the way through the night, I had this moment of clarity.  The DJ started playing “Sweet Caroline” and every single person in the room screamed the “bum bum bums” and fist-pumped along with the “so goods”.  I realized, quite suddenly, that this whole ritual (that is so very Boston) was foreign to me and to a lot of my classmates four years ago.  But now, now it is second nature.  It’s a part of who we are.  And there we were all together, singing and dancing and feeling at home as one senior class – at one Holy Cross.  I may be from Ohio, but from now on I will always have a little Massachusetts in me, as will every one of my classmates.  Good times never seemed so good (so good, so good, so good!).

Things I dig about Holy Cross #8,000,005:  It feels like home.

Happy Senior Ball!

Today was my last enrollment day!  My entire class woke up at 6:55 this morning to enroll in our courses for next semester.  My roommate and I sat with our pointers hovering over the “enroll” button as we waited for the clock to turn from 6:59 to 7:00am and the system opened up.  That minute always feels like an hour.

As we waited, we reminisced about our freshman year enrollment day. First years enroll last, so it can be very difficult to get into certain classes.  People used to camp out in the library or the computer lab so they wouldn’t have to rely on the wifi in their rooms.  At about 7:01am, I remember hearing cheers rolling through Wheeler from those who got all four courses they wanted… and shouts from those who didn’t.  Everyone updated their Facebook statuses to fractions like “4/4” or “3/4” (or, in the worst case, “0/4”) so that we could celebrate and commiserate together – and then this process was repeated, every semester following, over and over again.

So, why do I love enrollment day?  Despite being a small, academically rigorous community, Holy Cross students are not very competitive with each other.  We tend to like discussion, sharing, and working together.  But enrollment – enrollment is where we get a little competitive.  We get up at the crack of dawn, we race each other to press the button, and we pray like we’ve never prayed before that our internet connection will move a little faster than our neighbors’ – all so that we can get into whatever cool seminar or lab we are just dying to take.

Then, the little bit of competition that enrollment day creates results in a whole lot of camaraderie.  This morning, I celebrated senior year with my roommate and we enrolled for the last time.  At 7:01, the Facebook statuses and tweets were rolling in.  A friend of mine who lives across campus sent out a Snapchat of the sunrise.  And, yes, I enrolled successfully:  4/4.

Everybody has that one weird co-curricular that they just adore.  If you have read my blog before, you can probably guess mine:  that’s right, I’m talking about ballroom dance.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I LOVE ballroom dance.  Competing with the team fuels my competitive drive, practicing twice a week keeps me in shape, and the people – oh, the people!  I fell in love with ballroom dance three years ago, and I am still in love.

My clubs are pure fun – they are just groups of people who have the same hobbies I have, so we get together sometimes to talk about those hobbies and maybe learn something.  As a student, I need co-curriculars to break me out of the cycle of classes and papers and work.  Holy Cross students know that (probably too well, since most of us are involved in way more than one club or sport).  Clubs, club sports, and all of those other things that we do “extra” – they are so important because they allow us, the students, to be more than just students.  In co-curriculars, we become well-rounded, interesting people… or, at least, we get to blow off some steam!

HCBDT Silver Dancers dance American Swing!

On the long list of things I love about Holy Cross, Harvest Fest gets its own post.  This one night in Kimball is possibly the greatest night of the entire year.  Formerly known as Applefest, Harvest Fest culminates a whole Harvest Week, during which all the dining areas on campus serve fall-themed food.  There is hot apple cider at Cool Beans, pumpkin bisque soup at the Science Cafe, and so on.  But Harvest Fest in Kimball – Harvest Fest in Kimball is untouchable.  On this one legendary Thursday night, the dining hall serves every fall dessert you could think of – all at once!  My friends and I like to go early and eat caramel apples for dinner, apple pie for dessert, and top it all off with hot or cold apple cider.

Of course, Harvest Fest is about more than just dessert.  It comes right in the middle of the semester, just when things are starting to get crazy.  It gives us something to get excited about and something to celebrate on what would be just any other Thursday.  And, Harvest Fest marks the beginning of fall in New England, which is the greatest season on Earth!

Things I dig about Holy Cross number whatever:  the Jesuit Tradition.  Today we celebrated the Jesuit Heritage mass on campus.  The 7pm service was packed with students and the entire Jesuit community was present.  Fr. Corkery, a visiting priest and professor from Ireland, said the liturgy.  His homily focused on the many slogans of the Jesuits that we hear so often at Holy Cross, particularly, “finding God in all things”.

Finding God in all things.  Right now, that is hanging on a banner around the Hoval, along with the other mottoes:  “Men and women for others.”  “Contemplatives in action.”  “Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. (For the greater glory of God)”  These phrases are at the very core of everything we do at Holy Cross.  You don’t have to be Jesuit, or Catholic, or even Christian for them to apply.  Honestly, most of the time I don’t even realize how my job as an RA helps me be a woman for and with others, or how long hours spent working on a term paper help me seek and find God… but it does!

When it comes to service, I am a little late to the party – but I finally joined a SPUD program (I haven’t been in one since freshman year!) and I am hoping to get more involved.  Luckily, there are a million and a half ways for that to happen! Tonight, I am feeling so lucky to be at Holy Cross, where they are very good at doing exactly what Fr. Corkery discussed in his homily:  “seeking and finding God in all things… in people and in sunsets, in scenes of suffering and in moments of joy.”

So, that’s something else I love about Holy Cross.  We are so steeped in Jesuit tradition that every student knows these slogans by heart, and most try to really live by them.  SPUD holds a recruitment night at the beginning of every year and the line to get in is so long that they have to give people timed-entry tickets.  I went to my first Pax Christi meeting this week, and the room was full of so many joyful and passionate people that I know I will be returning again and again.  There is always an event to participate in and a cause to support, be it Relay for Life or a walk for autism awareness or Dance Marathon, which raises money and awareness for pediatric HIV.  Spring Break Immersion Trips are generally considered the greatest experience one can possibly have.  The people at Holy Cross are absolutely inspiring – they believe they can change the world, and I believe they will.

AMDG!

The Co-curricular Extravaganza was this week.  It is this great (and slightly overwhelming) night where all the registered student organizations on campus (and there are a lot of them) set up tables in the ballroom (and the annex to the ballroom, and the lobby… like I said, there are a LOT of them) and recruit students to their clubs.  There is music, dancing, tri-fold boards, and lots of fliers being passed around.  It is loud and crowded and super fun – especially now that I am an upperclassman and more on the recruiting side of things!

However, I inevitably sign up for more and more clubs every year… which leads me to the topic of this week’s blog post.  Things I dig about Holy Cross number 1000:  the passionate and highly involved student body!  Everybody has a passion about something, be it a cappella or a club sport or reading manuscripts, and that passion is contagious.  Personally, I love the co-curricular extravaganza because it just oozes that joy and excitement that drew me to Holy Cross in the first place.

This year (even though it is senior year), I signed up for two new clubs to add to the three that I am already a part of.  Do I have time for five clubs, the RA life, a SPUD program, tutoring, and my schoolwork?

…let’s just say this is an exercise in time management.  I’m a Holy Cross student.  I can’t help myself.

Every Sunday, the Career Services office sends all the seniors a bulletin about what jobs have been posted recently, upcoming deadlines, and other information about how to tackle the job search.  So, today’s installment of “things Megan loves about Holy Cross” is entitled, How Holy Cross Helps Students Move On From Holy Cross.

During my first year at Holy Cross, I was introduced to the three questions that are meant to guide us through the whole Holy Cross experience:

1.  Who am I?

2.  Who do I want to become?

3.  Who will I be for others?

Now that I am a senior I am thinking a lot about the future, the great unknown, and what on earth I am going to be doing when this year ends.  Like every senior, I am clinging to every single day and hoping the year never really ends… but it will, and we are all trying to have a plan in place when it does.  Those questions, which have been such a big part of my education, are even more relevant now.  Who am I?  Who do I want to become?  Who will I be for others?  Where do I go from here?

Thankfully, Holy Cross does not let me ponder the great unknown all by myself.  Between my advisor, the chaplains’ office, the office of Career Services, the office of Fellowships and Graduate Study, and every single one of my professors, there are a plethora of people who are ready and willing to talk this stuff out with each senior – and then, when we think we know where we want to go, they help us formulate  a plan so we can get there.  That is one of the big perks of this small, liberal arts school.  The resources and the opportunities for those of us who are facing the future are endless and practically forced upon us, every Sunday, in our inboxes.

It’s only three weeks into the school year and I have already had so many of those “so where are you going to be next year” conversations.  I haven’t figured out the answers to all those “who am I” questions, but I am getting closer.  My fellow seniors and I, like the many classes before us, are going to move on from the Hill eventually.  Hopefully, we will move on happily and successfully – Holy Cross insists upon it!

So, for senior year, I am going to post once a week focusing on one thing I love about Holy Cross.  (Once a week, that’s right!  Hold me to that!)  This week, that focus is the Office of Residence Life and Housing.

When you spend a year abroad, returning back to campus is an adjustment.  Everyone I meet asks the same obligatory questions:  “Where were you?”  “How was it?”  “Wasn’t it incredible???”  “How do you feel about being back?  I bet Worcester has got nothing on Rome…”  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love those questions.  I loved every second of my year abroad and I can talk about Athens and Rome until the cows come home (seriously, people are sick of hearing about it).  And it’s true, Rome is the most beautiful city in the world and living in Athens was absolutely life-changing… but does that take away from how I see Worcester?  Or how I see Holy Cross?

NOT.  IN.  THE.  LEAST.

Whenever I am asked those questions, and even when I am not asked those questions, I tell everyone how happy I am to be back on campus, how good it feels to be in Worcester again, and how I am SO EXCITED to be back on the Hill I call my home.  I believe my word of the month has been “psyched” – I can’t stop saying it.  I am just really, really PSYCHED to be back!

One of the reasons I am so psyched to be back is because I am also back in ResLife, doing the RA thing.  And, oh, do I love my job.  Though it comes with many unique frustrations and challenges, being an RA allows me to work closely with my peers, to be a resource, and to make connections and build community.  Working in ResLife makes me a part of a large and diverse group of people that are truly a support system.  I learned this very quickly when I worked in Loyola my sophomore year, and I missed it more than I realized when I was abroad.

The Office of Residence Life and Housing is more than just housing selection and policy enforcement.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that is the smallest part of our job.  At Holy Cross, ResLife is about building community, creating friendships, making a residence hall feel like a home, and living as men and women for and with others.  A good RA – I’m not one, but I’m learning – does all that without you even realizing.  Your residence hall, after all, is your home base here on the Hill.  My freshman year, my residence hall felt like home almost immediately, all thanks to the incredible staff.  RAs at Holy Cross do not get that free-room-and-board deal like some other schools, so the office is full of people who really, truly love what they do.

That’s huge.  That makes this place home.  And that’s why I’m psyched to be a part of it!

ResLife is great, but my own staff is the greatest because we do cool things like this.

First year move-in day is my favorite day of the year.  There is an incredible energy on campus and everyone has a lot of fun.  I am always thrown back to my move-in day that first year – everything was new and overwhelming and I was SO nervous.  Little did I know how absolutely amazing these four years would be.

By the way, yes, I am back on the Hill.  I could not be more excited.  Seriously, every day I wake up and think, “oh man, I am finally back at Holy Cross!” and I can’t stop smiling.

I hope I am not starting to creep people out.

Goodbyes are hard.  They are always hard.  They are especially hard, however, at a program like where I am now.  My fellow interns and I have thrown ourselves into our work for six weeks now.  We have lived and breathed and thought about nothing but the kids we were teaching.  And now, all of a sudden, it’s over.

Even though I have just been through an incredible, harrowing, transforming experience with 37 other interns, I am likely never going to see these people again.  So, goodbyes are hard.  However, when I left Rome, goodbyes were hard.  When my semester in Greece came to a close, goodbyes were hard.  At the end of every school year, when I see the graduating seniors for often the last time, goodbyes are hard.

And now, senior year is really starting.  I bring it up all the time, I know… but I am grappling with the concept!  It’s senior year of college!  It’s my last year on the Hill!  I am not sure if I am going to be able to face it.  I love Holy Cross – really, truly, head-over-heels, LOVE it.  Saying goodbye is going to be the hardest goodbye of my life.

This only goes to show:  I am so lucky to have had these experiences.  I am blessed to have met the people that make saying goodbye so hard.