Category: Trip Down Memory Lane

Let’s go back to a time when none of you knew me (well, except my family that reads this blog). I graduated from Blessed Trinity Catholic High School exactly four years ago today. Yes, I grew out my hair during my senior year of high school. However, it gets really hot in Georgia during the summer, so I chopped it all off before I started my first semester at Holy Cross.

I knew that I was headed off to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. I knew no one else going to Holy Cross. A majority of my classmates were heading off to UGA, Alabama (all of them were not hurt in the recent tornadoes, by the way), Auburn, Clemson, or Georgia Tech. I was choosing a small, liberal-arts college, which was quite an uncommon choice. This is the first photo of me wearing official Holy Cross gear.

At the time of my high school graduation, I didn’t know what to expect from Holy Cross. I just remember being generally excited.

I enjoy ruining perfectly good photos by closing my eyes.

Knowing what I know now, I’m not sure what I’d tell myself on my high school graduation day. When I was 17, I had no idea that I would be graduating with a double major in English and Medieval Studies. I had no idea that I would become obsessed with ballroom dance. I didn’t know that I would go to Oxford for my year abroad (I didn’t even know that I’d spend a year abroad!). I didn’t know that I would meet professors who would forever change my life. Maybe I’d tell myself to remember my passport for Summer Orientation to assist with paperwork for working at Kimball. Maybe I’d tell myself to not bring as many clothes as I did. Maybe I’d remind myself that one can never have enough tea mugs. But, most of all, I’d tell myself to remain as excited and open to all the possibilities that I was. I had no set plans when I entered Holy Cross other than my English major, and that helped me to discover all of the possibilities that I did over my four years. Maybe the one thing that I would tell myself on May 17, 2007, is that I made the right choice.

This photo was taken during the summer when I was dreaming of my first days at Holy Cross, and I proudly displayed all of the Holy Cross gear that Mom bought for me during Accepted Students’ Day. Yup, I think I kept up the excitement all right.

And, no, I don’t mind embarrassing myself horridly on this blog. I feel like we’ve known each other long enough.

From about June until the end of July of 2007, I checked STAR religiously every day to see my housing assignment. I wanted to know where I was living (well, I knew that because I was in FYP) and who was going to be my victim er…roommate. Day after day, STAR kept on reporting that there was nothing to report. Then, the facebook group for the Holy Cross Class of 2011 sent out a message one day in late July – roommate assignments were published on STAR. I immediately logged into STAR, clicked on my housing arrangement, and saw the following two lines:

Hanselman Hall 318

Carrie Staab

Being the cool kid that I am/was, I immediately went back to Facebook to find this Carrie Staab figure. Turns out that she had already found me, though, since I had a friend request from her. For the next month and a half, we talked about our sleeping preferences, who was bringing what, and tried to get to know each other (people before facebook: how did you do it?). We met on move-in day (maybe one day I’ll actually document how awful of a day it really was).

For the first semester, we lived well together, but we weren’t the best of friends. We got on just fine, though. We had classes together and we went to Kimball together; she introduced me to some of her friends through her clubs, and I did the same. Toward the end of first semester, though, that all changed. As I lamented going to our mutual 8:00 CRAW Poetry class, I said, “But, Mommy, I don’t want to go to school! I want to stay home and bake cookies with you!” Carrie stared at me in disbelief, and asked me, “Wait. You say that too?” “Yup. I’ve been saying it since I saw Space Jam.” “Same here!” After that, we became the best of friends.

Please don’t mind my weird hair. I don’t know what was up with it that night.

The man, the myth, the legend: Professor Kee. Little did he know exactly how much of a role he’d play in my life after that simple FYP course… He’s also Carrie’s thesis reader.

We decided not to room with each other sophomore year since we both had already made arrangements with other girls. But we still continued our friendship – we took classes together, hung out all the time, and even made pecan pie at the end of first semester.

Carrie and I were able to talk about things that no one else really understood about us – I was thinking more about the medieval period as a profession, and she was thinking about academia in general. In keeping with this academic theme, we were even inducted into the English Honors Society (Sigma Tau Delta) together.

Yes, I’m trying to be tall. Give me a break.

Then, we studied abroad together in Oxford last year. We were constantly hanging out with each other – we usually had tea breaks with each other, studied with each other, and ranted to each other when our tutorial assignments seemed too much to handle.

Welcome to the Theology Library at Mansfield College!

And welcome to the Botanical Gardens. We went there on Midsummer’s Day at noon and sat on this specific bench for  a reason…any Philip Pullman fans out there?

We also went to Sutton Hoo together in the middle of winter, which was definitely an adventure.

Then, we returned to Holy Cross for our senior year. Between our classes, discussions about the future, and tea sessions, we’re still the best of friends.

So, dear Residence Life staff that was responsible for placing us together: Thank you.

And, yes, we’re still crazy.

Firstly, happy Easter! I spent Easter on campus again this year to a) help out with the Masses on campus and b) get ahead with some work. Mom flew up on Friday, and will be here until this coming Saturday. I was able to have a nice (read: excellent!) Sunday brunch with her, my grandmother, and my cousin, Mitchell, who is a senior at Tufts. Never fear – I had a wonderful Easter, and it hasn’t been all work.

So raise your hand if you remember this:

The short hair, the non-dance shoes, and the lack of stage make-up. Yes, you’re looking at a photo from my first ballroom competition, which was held at Harvard.

Quite poetically, my last American competition was held at Harvard on Saturday (which is one of the reasons why Mom came up). Let’s compare, shall we?

Kind of a difference, right? More like a massive difference. For starters, the ratio of rhinestones to body space is definitely higher in this photo than in the one from my first competition. And I finally discovered how to achieve that dance look with fake eyelashes, hair extensions, gel, and copious amounts of stage make-up.

Josh and I did quite well – poetically enough (sorry, I know that I used that phrase before), I made a goal at that first Harvard competition to end up on the Advanced floor. Josh and I competed on the Advanced Rhythm floor, and we made it to the semi-finals, which wasn’t bad for practicing only two hours before the competition.

The transformation in my dancesport look has been extreme – let’s take a look through some of the older dance photos, shall we?

Here’s one that probably conveys the transformation most clearly, though:

No, no – not that one. Although it does show how crazy dance has made me, and how knackered Josh can get after one round of Rhythm (he perks right back up in you give him water, though).

This one. This was almost the cover of the HC Magazine, but the editors decided to go with something a little less…sexy (can I use that word on this blog?). This doesn’t manifest just my transformation, but the team’s. We were the cover article for the HC Magazine, which was just amazing. We had so many people come to our booth at Accepted Students’ Day telling us what a wonderful team we must be to have that type of coverage. On top of that, we were also nominated for the Outstanding Club Sports Team of the Year. Our competition this year was the largest in our history, and we were officially bigger than the competitions run by UConn, Harvard Beginners, Brandeis, and BU. It’s incredible to see how much this team has grown – we started out as just a bunch of students who wanted to learn how to dance, and now we’ve become a real team. It’s beyond remarkable.

Don’t worry – we’re still crazy.

I think we have all known each other long enough for me to finally tell you that I am obsessed with 80’s power ballads. “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” by Celine Dion is a personal favorite, and has been since an inside joke originated about it in high school.

Anyway, who remembers this?

Ah, the short, blondish/brownish hair (I refuse to label it)…yes, this is the photo from my first year of blogging (and, actually, the first photo of me at Holy Cross. That’s actually a lie – the first photo of me at Holy Cross is me moving into my dorm room and crying. True story.). Or this? Anyone remember the time when Ashley and Katie mixed up their hair dye? Apparently, that’s a really popular blog entry post.

Or when all the girls of Hanselman 3 made a menorah with Sarah’s face in the middle?

Or when a huge snowstorm hit during my Latin final and I almost didn’t make it home for Christmas break?

What’s wonderful about these four photos is that they occurred all during my first semester of freshman year, and these four photos don’t even begin to cover the memories that I made during that single semester. I was going through some of my old photos from college – some of them are hilarious, most of them are embarrassing, but all of them are wonderful and remind me of the amazing times that I’ve had here on the Hill.

So, here’s my plan: in addition to keeping you all in the loop about my life and how I’m preparing for graduation (which is in 34 days. WAIT WHAT), I’m going to make at least one post a week with old photos. I plan to do them chronologically, but I might end up having a couple dedicated to certain subjects (i.e., ballroom – trust me, there are some good ones -, campus ministry, the seasons at Holy Cross, etc). This is going to be just as much fun for me as it is for you. Hopefully you’ll be able to relive some of the great Colleen moments (such as me throwing away my ID card accidentally and then rummaging through the trash for the next half hour. Oh. Wait. I never posted about that? Ehhmm…). Think of me embarrassing myself as a way to thank you all for reading this blog for the past four years.