Membership in the cult of beauty is a prerequisite for girlhood. I can’t remember when beauty became my governing power, can't remember an age when I did not look at myself with the eye of an appraiser. If there’s escape from the cult, I’ve yet to find it.
As we trudge through the final week of February and see some glimmers of sunlight, it’s worth considering what intentional decisions we can make about how to spend the rest of the semester. What habits do we wish to leave behind in the winter and fall, and what lessons and goals do we wish to bring ...
My go-to response to any icebreaker question is that I speak four languages. It piques peoples’ interest, allows me to organically share the many places I call home and reminds me of my history. “I speak four languages.” This is not false, but I have to confess that it is not entirely true either. ...
Being a Ukrainian student in Vermont, studying at one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States, I feel the urge to use my privilege and resources to expedite Ukraine’s victory. My sister, my friends and my home remain in Kyiv. So, despite the 4,420 miles that physically separate me from ...
They say that to have an eating disorder is to be at war with yourself. Likewise, to paraphrase Baudelaire, they say that the greatest trick of the enemy is to convince you that there is no war. Overcoming an eating disorder is challenging because it requires you to choose to be at peace with your body ...
The administration sent an email titled “Inclusive Admissions and Incoming Class Update” to the Middlebury community on Feb. 7, which contained preliminary information about the demographics of the incoming classes of 2028 and 2028.5, and reaffirmed the college’s admissions approach after ...
Each semester brings in a new crop of eager-eyed first years, pushing the seniors out into “the real world.” Living in Forest Hall as a senior gives me an intimate window into my own obsolescence. At one end of the hall lurk the silent underclassmen while at the other end of the hall Baby Febs splay ...
Following a fall semester spent beset by email after email from the college administration recognizing personal and international tragedies, we have begun to reevaluate the importance of Middlebury’s administrative statements to the goals of the college as an academic institution. As we’ve watched ...
In March of my senior year of high school, I told my best friend that I couldn’t wait to be at an institution where more people had read Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” a text that at the time struck me as the apex of literary pretension. Thankfully she laughed in my face. Yet I remained committed ...
I am writing this Notes from The Desk during my last week as the Senior Opinions Editor at The Campus. I write this to be published one week and two days before I move off of this campus and ski down with the class of 2023.5. I write this to say how incredibly grateful I am to have had this position, ...
When I first saw the Snow Bowl, I knew I wanted to apply to Middlebury. I fell in love with the Middlebury Snow Bowl and the adventures to be had before I had even stepped foot on campus. Five years ago, when I eagerly clicked on my acceptance letter, the snowflakes dancing on my computer screen foretold ...
Vermont isn’t what we think it is. At least, Vermont isn’t the place I thought it was or the place many of my peers think it to be. Coming to Vermont as a student from the Midwest, I was eager to become immersed in the land of politicians like Bernie Sanders, activist companies like Ben and Jerry’s ...
Reflecting on my experiences as an Orientation Assistant for the new first-year Febs in 2022, a job I originally deemed invigorating and fun, I realized that I will never do it again. I am not alone in this sentiment; my friends who worked as orientation leaders share similar feelings. Like me, they ...
That evening, picking up the prescription from the CVS counter, had the ring of an anti-climax. I resisted treating my anxiety with medication for so long, but when the crisis point came, the decision to take Prozac was easy. My anxiety was just another problem in need of solving.
As the sun begins to set ever earlier in the afternoon, and the bitter chill creeps into students’ dorm rooms, the reality of winter in Vermont slowly but surely sets in across campus. These last two weeks of the fall semester and the looming reality of J-Term represent significant changes to student ...
When people ask, “What do you do on campus?” it is most often asked with good intentions. I absolutely hate this question. Over my time at Middlebury, I have crafted a decent elevator pitch for when I come across this awkward moment in conversation. I say something to the tune of “Oh, I ...
In the spring of 2017, Charles Murray, a political scientist known for his controversial work “The Bell Curve” was invited by the American Enterprise Institute Club to speak at Middlebury College. His presence sparked student protests that not only disrupted his speech but also escalated to violence ...
“Hello, you’ve reached the MiddSafe hotline. How can I help you today?” Power-based personal violence is not just individual occurrences, but structural, community-level problems that require collective actions to remedy. Violence continues to occur at Middlebury College and has pervasive impacts ...
As I approach the end of my final fall semester at Middlebury, I have found myself grappling with the realization that, forgoing any eleventh-hour surprises, I will likely graduate without experiencing a romantic college relationship. That fact has forced me to admit that over the past couple of weeks, ...
We are a group of 30 Jewish Middlebury students following in the footsteps of Brown University Jews for Ceasefire Now and many other Jewish students at schools such as Yale, Harvard, Columbia and Vanderbilt across the country who have rallied around important demands for justice and peace in Palestine ...