About: Clara
Name: Clara (C. Lib, Clare Bare, Sushi Monster, Marcus, Genny, Terminator X)
Year: First-Year
Hometown: New City, NY (45 minutes north of NYC)
Concentration and/or current intellectual obsession: asking big questions
(Who am I? Who are we? Why are we here?), cheese (educating/consuming),
music (making it, listening to it, criticizing it), animals
(dogs/cats/horses/lizards/pygmy hedgehogs/horses/ferrets/fennec foxes),
photography (film/digital), writing (poetry/prose), dance
How did I get here?
I came here twice and settled once. The second interview reassured me that
this place was a great opportunity. Doesn’t everyone find it to be a
fantastic alternate system? Look where you are! Look at what you can do!
You have to be a little selfish coming here; you’re leaving your high
school; you’re starting college; you’re doing it for you. My friends from
home still question me.
Despite all the homebound confusion, “how are you getting a diploma” and
“how are you going to college” the college year here began; I found it
very manageable… and fun. My high school agreed to let me take my
requirements here, so my first semester schedule has some strangely
juxtaposed classes. To not necessarily have math and economics as my main
interests, it’s still interesting to be part of a class where so many
young people are passionate and smart… so early. My peers’ energy is
exciting and contagious throughout the campus.
The best bit about being here is the freedom to be who you want to be. I
came here with my instruments, but dancing began to take over instead. The
dance studio is beautiful; there isn’t a light that it does not look
strangely pure in. The opportunities are so open for each individual.
There are resources for each student if they need them. The support here
has made my transition simple and enjoyable.
So here I am: fascinated and lured by every department here… Well, Phish
said it better: “Undecided, undefined, undisturbed yet undermined,
relocated not retired, reprimanded and rewind, mystified and misshapen,
misinformed but not mistaken, reinvented, redefined, rearranged but not
refined, unrelenting, under stroked, undeterred yet unprovoked,
reinvented, redefined, rearranged but not refined, mystified and
misshapen, misinformed but not mistaken, undecided, undefined.” I suppose
this is the beginning that college encourages…
