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On June 11th, I technically became a Master of English.

Yeah, that’s a scary thought.

I turned in my dissertation on the images in Junius 11 earlier in the morning, and…well, now I’m finished for the year. It seems strange – I’ve spent nearly every day since mid-April working on the thesis, and suddenly….it’s just finished. There’s still so much more that I want to write about the Junius manuscript, but I was only allowed to write 11,000 words. I presented my dissertation two days later at a conference at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Although traveling to Scotland was a bit of an adventure, the conference itself went really well. I presented at the Scottish Word and Image Group conference, and I was the only Old English presentation. Most of the other presentations focused on the sixteenth century and beyond, so it was helpful to learn how I needed to adapt my material for a non-specialist audience.

So, now that I’ve technically finished for the year, I’m taking advantage of all of the libraries in Oxford and catching up on some reading. I’m working through a few classics at the moment, and I’ll start researching my dissertation topics for next year (if you can believe it…). Until then, I’m working to save up some money for my trip back to Boston starting on July 17th. And, yes, you can bet that I will be meeting up with more than a few Crusaders.

When I moved to England in September, I shocked and awed a little British school boy when he heard my accent. ‘Did you hear that?’ he asked one of his friends. ‘Her accent was American!’ It’s still one of my favorite living abroad moments. Well, since Thursday, there’s been one more American accent in Oxford. Mom is currently visiting me through the beginning of next week (and the weather is perfect. Not.). We’ve already had quite the action-packed schedule. One of my medievalist friends, Hannah, took all of the medievalists to formal hall at her college, Worcester, and Mom was able to tag along for her first formal dinner, complete with a roast pork belly with ginger and rhubarb compote.

Over the weekend, Mom attended both of my ballroom competitions. Yes, that’s right – I had one competition on Saturday and one on  Sunday. Needless to say, I never want to put gel in my hair again. The competition on Sunday was the 39th Varsity match between Oxford and Cambridge. Essentially, you have two teams of nine couples from both universities each, who will dance waltz, quickstep, cha, and jive against each other in a succession of three heats per dance. Dean and I danced on the B-Team.

Dean and I were somewhat nervous about our events since we just learned our waltz and advanced quickstep routine about two weeks before. That’s an incredibly limited amount of time to get the steps down, make sure that we’re dancing it properly, and adjust it to floor sizes. We were happy with how we danced our ballroom overall, but, as usual, our Latin felt stronger.

Photo Copyright Nathalie Raunet

One of the more embarrassing moments of the day (come on, it’s me) came with our Latin walk on. Dean and I learned the choreography the night before the Match (whoops), and he kept on asking me if I felt comfortable with the choreo. ‘Of course!’ I replied enthusiastically.

As you can tell from the second photo, I failed. Wrong leg. Whoops. According to Dean, I might’ve danced it wrong, but at least I danced with conviction. The rest of the audience will never know if my version was correct or not. Well. Wait. No, they know that it wasn’t correct. But hey. Points for effort?

Unfortunately, Oxford lost both the A and B Team Matches to Cambridge.

We all look pretty defeated. But check out my tan.

A-Team lost by 10 points, and B-Team lost by 200 points. It was heart-wrenching. At the end of the presentations, the coaches then gave out awards for the Best Latin, Ballroom, Overall, and Newcomer couples from both universities. I’ll spare you the details, but Dean and I won the best Latin and Newcomer couple for the B-Team (it was announced today after a minor glitch in the results from Saturday). Dean and I were really pleased with that result, and we also came 5th overall in the entire B-Team match. So, our ballroom didn’t bring us down too much (one judge even marked our Quickstep as second place!), which was really encouraging.

My friends then attended the Varsity Ball, but Dean and I had to sleep since we had to be up at 5:30 the next morning to attend our second competition of the weekend. We attended the ISTD Regional Qualifiers in Hove, which is where I won two years ago (it’s all cooooooming back to me noooooooow). I’ve moved up a few levels now, and I was more focused on just qualifying, which I did in both my ballroom and Latin. So, I will be competing at the ISTD Nationals in Blackpool in November again.

Latin Line-Up

I also placed 5th in my Waltz pairs and 3rd in my Cha pairs with Dean. I had a bit of a bumble moment (as usual) for the Latin pairs. I really had to use the bathroom before our final, and I thought that I had enough time. As I was washing my hands, I heard ‘Calling 248 to the floor…calling 248 to the floor’. Yes. 248 was my number. I ran down the stairs, met Mom halfway, who exclaimed ‘YOU’RE ON’. ‘I KNOW’. As soon as my feet hit the stage, though, I just sauntered up to Dean and the music started playing as if nothing had happened. But wait. It gets better. Upon receiving my third place trophy, the presenter and I had a bit of a bumble moment, and somehow the trophy was dropped in the exchange. Usually, these trophies are just harder plastic, so they normally don’t break. Nope. This one did. It broke right into two pieces. The entire room was silent for a good five seconds and then just erupted into laughter. Well, I will never be late for a final again.

Currently, Mom and I are exploring Oxford for a bit. We are headed into London tomorrow to celebrate Mothers’ Day, and then we are off to Cambridge for my first conference on Thursday and Friday.

Tea, cake, and paleography. I could get used to this.

Since attending graduate school, I’m beginning to realize just how unique my undergraduate experience was. Most of my friends here attended fairly large universities for their undergraduate degrees. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s just very different from my four years at Holy Cross. For instance, most of my friends didn’t know their college’s president. As the photo above might indicate, I did know mine. Throughout my four years at Holy Cross, Fr. McFarland was an exemplary leader – both as a college administrator and a man of faith. Fr. McFarland was a constant presence on campus – the door to his office was always open, and he was always walking around campus – I usually saw him in Hogan when I was clutching a huge mug of black coffee and frantically writing a paper. Most importantly, he always stopped to ask how every students’ day was going. Whenever I served Mass with him, he was always smiling and asked me about my courses. Right before I left for Blackpool last year, he wished me good luck and hoped I would bring home a trophy (kind of glad I did; I couldn’t imagine letting him down!). His “Last Lecture” speech was one of the most well attended events on our campus, and his speech was so personal, heartfelt, and raw. Such a personal connection with a college president is, as I’m discovering, quite rare. He was so intricately involved with all of our lives and cared so much about every Crusader – past, present, and future.

Thank you for everything, Fr. McFarland. Holy Cross will miss you!

I remember finals week at Holy Cross so well. You’d wake up at 7 to get to Kimball for 7:30, race off to Dinand for when they opened, grab your carol, and claim it as your own until whenever necessary. And you’d just type. I personally loved this one carol that was in the PR section on the bottom floor of Dinand. Anyway, we’d all cram everything into our days – whether we had fifteen essays to write or a massive exam the next day. Then, we’d all unwind by going to Midnight Breakfast (because waffles at midnight are always a good idea) or watching movies. Yes, it was a stressful period, but I think some of my best memories happened during Finals Week. The first snow usually fell around this time in the fall semester. It’s difficult to believe that I took this photo nearly four years ago:

This was three years ago:

This was two years ago:

(Okay, so this doesn’t count)

And this was last year:

Long story short – invest in a camera for college, because then you can do cool stuff like this and have nostalgic moments nearly every day.

It’s incredible how quickly it all flew by. At the moment, I feel like I’m in Finals Week mode…with a bit more stress added on top. My essay is due in about a week, and I’m basically spending every day working on it from 9-5. My first term as a graduate student will be over, and I just cannot believe where the time has gone.

I’ve been back in the UK for nearly a week now, and Oxford hasn’t changed a bit. Well, I admit that there are a few new stores here and there. Anyway, Mom and I flew over last Wednesday night, and she helped me move in. Having her here made things a lot easier than my junior year. Dad joined us on Saturday, and the moving in process is basically complete at this moment.

My new college, St. Hilda’s, is beautiful. It’s right along the river, and several willow trees overlook the meadow. You can actually walk on the grass, too!

All of my official events begin next week, and then classes begin the following week. Then it’s on for ten straight weeks of papers, classes, tutorials, and dissertation proposals. Well, here we go!

I officially have one week until I leave for England. Naturally, I just spent about five days in Boston and Worcester with my Holy Cross friends. Packing up everything so I can move to a foreign country for two years? Nah. It doesn’t seem nearly as important as going back to my alma mater.

It was fantastic to see everyone. I had long conversations with Professors Perry, Mulrooney, Kee, DiCenso, Smith, Geracht, and Fr. Brooks about my new courses at Oxford and how I felt where graduate school was going to lead me. I talked with friends about their lives on the Hill as current seniors, juniors, and sophomores, and we reminisced about our adventures when I was still a student. I walked around campus to see the new additions and to place myself in my favorite spots on campus. I spent most of Tuesday afternoon in Campion talking with Paul Melley and the other chaplains. I went to Culpepper’s every morning to get my iced coffee and blueberry scones. In other words, I felt like I was back at Holy Cross.

Fr. Brooks – we chatted about the Christology seminar this semester and the theologians that his students had picked earlier that day. I am proud to report that another girl is studying Rahner!

Professor Kee – this poor man thought that when I graduated, I’d be out of his hair. Such is not the case!

Although, I will admit this – although I adored every moment that I spent on campus, I just had this feeling that it’s time to move on from Holy Cross. Holy Cross has given me the most wonderful undergraduate experience, but I am excited for everything that my graduate career has to offer.

Don’t worry – I will always consider Holy Cross my home. But I’m just very excited about the opportunities that graduate school holds for me. And, oh, yes. I am leaving for England in less than a week, and I haven’t started packing. This could be an issue.

Unfortunately, my visit back to Holy Cross wasn’t all smiles and catching up. One of my favorite professors, Professor Rick Murphy of the Religious Studies department, passed away on Tuesday morning.

I was blessed to have had Professor Murphy for two classes – Jesus and His Contemporaries in my sophomore year and Apocalypticism Through the Ages in my senior year. When Fr. Brooks told me about Professor Murphy’s passing on Tuesday morning, I had a difficult time accepting it. Professor Murphy was one of the kindest and most involved professors in my life at Holy Cross (then again, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a professor at Holy Cross who didn’t care about his or her students). Even in the semester when I wasn’t taking one of his classes, I always stopped by his office and we talked about everything – and I mean everything. His classes helped me develop a more mature understanding of my Catholic faith, and his example as a scholar and a man of faith definitely helped me along my own faith journey. The photo above is from my Christology defense in Senior year, when he was a guest grader. After my presentation and defense of Karl Rahner, Professor Murphy sat down next to me and whispered, “Great job.” His presence on campus and, more specifically, in my life will certainly be missed, but I am blessed to have known him in my undergraduate career.

http://news.holycross.edu/blog/2007/09/05/first-year-student-ready-to-explore-abundant-opportunities-available-at-holy-cross/

Anyone remember that first news release? A lot has changed since then. The first line of that news release reads, “Decisions, decisions, decisions.” When that release was written, I remember being overwhelmed with all of the opportunities I had at Holy Cross, which ranged from courses options, extracurricular activities, and eateries (I really like food). Now, I get to look back and see how everything just fit together perfectly during my time at Holy Cross, even if I didn’t know it at the time. I remember meeting with Professor Oser during Summer Gateways, and he advised me to take a certain Professor Kee’s First Year Program course since it seemed to target everything that I loved (literature, theology, philosophy, and history). That FYP course introduced me to the Medieval period and Professor Kee, who eventually became my Medieval Studies Advisor. I happened to meet Professor Smith one day while walking through Smith, and we talked about studying abroad at Oxford in the summer after my freshman year. That program made me fall in love with Oxford, so I applied to study there during my junior year. Professor Mulrooney interviewed me in the first semester of sophomore year, and we struck up a conversation about Tolkien. He invited me to apply for one of the last spots in his seminar, which I did. I happened to waltz by (no pun intended) the Ballroom Dance table at the Co-Curricular Extravaganza, and I enjoyed the first lesson. Then I became hooked, and the rest is history. I didn’t know how all of these decisions would guide the course of my four years at Holy Cross (or life, but let’s not get too dramatic), but all of the decisions worked out well. In fact, they worked out so well that the plan with which I entered Holy Cross completely disintegrated, and I found a new plan and a new passion (well, several) that I never knew existed. So, to all of you members of 2015 – have fun making those decisions, whether they work out or not. You never know – that 7:00 a.m. shift at Kimball for which you sign up could very well be the place that you meet one of your best friends.

On September 3rd, 2007, I published my first post on this blog. In my first post, I had no idea what I was doing, so I just talked about Orientation activities and my classes. Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

Since then, I’ve made friends, acclimated to college life, and made Holy Cross my home. Of course, I still get lost every so often, and I definitely still have questions about the place (for instance, why is Mamie Reilly one of our fight songs? Dean Freeman doesn’t even know!). However, despite my bad sense of direction and some general questions, I know I’ve made the right decision for college.

Since that first post, a lot of things have changed, even with the blog itself. We’re now running on a .me platform, which allows users to post comments. The layout has changed a bit, too. And, of course, I’m no longer that frightened little freshman who got lost in Stein.

Most importantly, thank you to all of you, my readers. When I accepted this position, this blog was only supposed to be around for a year. Four years and a graduation later, I’m still here due to how you all have responded to my posts. I’ve met so many Crusaders who read my blog on the Hill, and it always means so much to me when I hear back from my readers. So, thank you to you all, and I can’t wait to show you what life off the Hill for this Crusader will be like.

And, no, I still don’t know why Maime Reilly is one of our fight songs.

Every night, I take a walk around campus – rain, clear skies, or even snow, I take a walk. I use that time to unwind from the day, listen to my music, and reflect upon my experiences that day. Tonight, the walk was a bit more bittersweet, since it’s my last night walk. As I was walking around campus, I remembered my first tour this year.

A parent asked, “Would you do it all over again?” There was no hesitation.

“Yes,” I replied instantly.

And that answer is 100% accurate. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t change anything about my undergraduate career. When I applied to Holy Cross, I didn’t know what to expect. I thought I knew what I wanted from my college experience, but my four years here have proved me otherwise. I didn’t understand why being an exclusively undergraduate campus was so important. I didn’t understand the full meaning and value of the liberal arts education. And, most importantly, I didn’t know what to expect from the Jesuit values and identity of this college. If I could, I would come back to Holy Cross for another four years, even if it meant being the only girl from Georgia in my grade and not knowing a single person for the first day of school. The late nights, the difficult classes, the insane reading lists – I’d do it all over again. When I submitted my deposit back in April of 2007, I had no idea that I would be a double major in English and Medieval Studies; I had no idea that I would be as involved in the Classics department as I am, and I had no clue that I would be a ballroom dancer (shocking, right?!). I didn’t know that I would spend my junior year abroad at Oxford University and that I would find my true academic passion there. I didn’t know that I’d end up returning to Oxford  for graduate work. I didn’t know that I’d meet professors who would forever change my life, or that I’d meet some of the most amazing 18-22 year olds. I didn’t know or plan any of this. Everything just unfolded. The person who I am today – the one that is leaving the hill in a mere couple of hours – is not the person who entered those gates four years ago. I have Holy Cross and the professors that I met along the way for this, since both the school and my professors offered me so many opportunities and encouraged me to take as many as possible.

I can’t believe that I’m graduating in less than twelve hours. Although I’m sad to leave Holy Cross, I know it’s time – I’ve had a wonderful experience here, but this is just the beginning, as cliche as that might sound.