Hello all! I hope everyone has been enjoying the warm spring weather these past few weeks- I know Holy Cross has certainly been blossoming with new activity as we continue to work our way through the semester. Around campus, I’ve seen groups of students playing catch on Easy Street, hanging out on the Hoval, and doing work in Memorial Plaza (like me last week with my bench!), and obviously the kickoff of spring sports has invited students to cheer on their fellow classmates as well. My friends and I attended a couple baseball games recently, which was awesome!
Aside from the obvious schoolwork and spending time in the sun, the students at Holy Cross have also been busy with their various extracurriculars. There are so many ways to get involved at Holy Cross and this plethora of organizations make it very easy to find where you belong- and it’s okay for it to be in more than one place! Holy Cross encourages taking care of the whole person and crafting a well-rounded self, and what better way to do that than exploring all of your interests (and maybe picking up some new ones along the way)? 🙂 This spring brought the arrival of various performances showcasing the talents of Holy Cross students that have worked tirelessly to make their visions a reality. I had the pleasure of attending the Alternate College Theatre production of Ride the Cyclone, which was entirely student-run, the College Choir’s Celestial Harp concert, featuring the breathtaking “Requiem” (though the link I provided doesn’t do the live performance justice) and the Black Student Union Fashion Show (this year titled “The Hidden Kingdom,” inspired by the city of Atlantis)- all within two days!
Outside of extracurriculars, the academic departments at Holy Cross also do an excellent job organizing events that pertain to students’ intellectual interests and career aspirations. As an English major/creative writing concentration, it was a joy to hear that the English department hosts an assortment of writers every semester (both inside and outside of the Holy Cross community) to talk about their craft and read excerpts from some of their works. I’ve attended two so far this semester (and will absolutely be attending more), where faculty member Xu Xi gave a talk on her most recent collection, Monkey in Residence, and Irish writer and poet Seán Hewitt came to the Hill to talk about his poetry collection, Tongues of Fire, and memoir, All Down Darkness Wide. Some classes require its students to attend certain events, as it does for my creative writing class this semester, but for me, once I discovered the unique sense of intellect and strong writing community that was found in these discussions, I knew I would be coming back far more than I needed to. In college, uncertainty surrounding your career can sometimes feel like a tornado that’s too much to handle, but listening to these talks reassured me that there is light at the end of the tunnel for everyone, in however form it may take.
Finally, these past few weeks have been preparing us Christians for the end of Lent and the triumph of Easter, as Holy Cross, similarly to its celebrations of Advent, does not shy away from the spectacular. One moment that particularly resonated with me was the Palm Sunday Mass this past weekend, where members of the campus community came together to participate in the extraordinary Palm Sunday traditions so familiar to many- starting Mass with the reading of the Gospel outside of the pews, collecting palms, and witnessing the moving reading of the Passion- yet still maintaining the magic of the Holy Cross community. Though I will be going home to finish off my Holy Week with Masses in my hometown that I’m sure will be equally as special, being able to partake in some of the Holy Week celebrations at Holy Cross was incredible in its own right.
With that, I’ll be signing off for today- make sure to stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for more blog posts! Thanks for reading, and Happy Easter to those who celebrate!
