H is for Hampshire College, Amherst, MA.  In 1987, I transferred from community college, mostly prompted by hearing a woman in an airport in Michigan, on my way home from the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, telling someone that Hampshire was the only school she could imagine attending.  I went to the library, and read about Hampshire in the Peterson’s Guide(print of course), and learned I could design my own major, and there were narrative evaluations rather than letter grades.

I loved the creative concept, the interdisciplinary mash-up.  The reality was harder to love.  I was lonely.  I was a work study student in the college post office(and still remember the box numbers), and was baffled by the student who carried his books in a paper bag, but drove a Mercedes, or the students whose parents could pay the tuition in full.  I graduated with student loan debt, and a degree that looked like a mandala. There is a niche market in framing them with round mattes.

I lived in Greenwich Mod 13, which was named for one of the towns that disappeared under the the Quabbin Reservoir.  My room was pie shaped.  In honor of today being Orange Tuesday, I have included a photo of my chair, which came with the room.

Greenwich House Donut #2, Mod 13 Hampshire College, 1990. Photograph by Margaret Almon, as she packed up her grandparents’ van with her worldly belongings.Memorable aspects of Hampshire:

• The Hampshire College motto is Non Satis Scire: To Know is Not Enough.
  
• The only sports team I recall was Ultimate Frisbee
• Hampshire was created by leaders of the other five schools in the region and I took classes at all of them except Amherst, including a poetry workshop with taught by a classmate of Sylvia Plath at Smith College.
• The college had a working farm with sheep.
• The array of alumni who have gone on to do interesting things from film maker Ken Burns, songwriter Elliott Smith, director Liev Schrieber, and writers Leah Hager Cohen, Jon Krakauer,  and comedian Eugene Mirman.

More images on my A to Z Challenge 2013 Pinterest Board.

A to Z Blogging Challenge April 2013

 

On Tuesdays I feature something orange, and for the A to Z Challenge, I also needed the letter B.  I found this Northampton County Area Community College(NCACC) logo in my old papers from 1986.  NCACC is located in Bethlehem, and it’s where I went my first two years of college.  From far north in Canada, I had applied to Oberlin, Brown, and Vassar, because they were part of the  guidance office’s small collection of college catalogs, but I had no idea of the competition.  I was on two waiting lists, which disappointed me then, but now seems miraculous.

I also applied to several Canadian universities and was planning on attending University of Toronto, but imagining moving all the way across Canada from Alberta to a city I’d never seen was overwhelming.  I decided to spend the summer with my mother and sister in Bethlehem.  A friend from church suggested I look at going to community college until I figured out what I wanted to do.   I loved NCACC, and it’s where I met Stratoz.  B is for Bethlehem, the Christmas City, with a star on the hill made of lights.

 

Where have you gone “in the meantime”?

For more orange goodness, check out my Orange Tuesdays Pinterest Board.