In roughly 26 hours, I and 6 pieces of baggage shall embark on a 28 hour taxi/train trip back to Decatur/Atlanta to roast the summer away. While I wait for my clothes to dry (no way am I getting 3 washers tomorrow), I thought it might be appropriate to share some reflections on Ephblog about the past year.

I arrived at Williams expecting something like the group of students who took lots of AP classes at my high school. Instead, what I found was a group that reflected all sorts of aspects and interests of society, albeit a group with uniformly high test scores. I found that the minivan of stuff I had arrived here with contained bottles and supplies that were mostly useless – the only things I found to be absolutely necessary for dorm life were bedding, clothes, a bathrobe, a spoon, and my laptop.

I came expecting to have something approximating a regular meal plan. Instead, I found that my internal clock was pushed back such that lunch was at 4 and dinner at 9. In fact, the only days I regularly had a regular dining hall breakfast were the days I had an 8:30 class in Greylock – we ate off our trays in the classroom.

I came a little apprehensive about dorm life, having had one especially bad roommate experience in my past (I would lay away at 2:00 AM shaking my fists at the ceiling while he had very dumb conversations with a friend from home). Instead, I, Will, found a roommate named Will in Williams Hall at Williams College in Williamstown. We had a sign on our door naming our room the “Willocracy.” I learned many interesting facts about Deleware and its government, and had hallmates from all around the country with all sorts of different passions, interests, and quirks.

I had the opportunity to travel to Rome with Williams Catholic, though I am Protestant, and to play songs on the chapel bells ranging from The Mountains to Hey Ya to Ode to Joy. I had the chance to have lab on a hiking trail, to meet Jim Wallace and James Carville, to argue with Markos Moulitsas, and to earn lots of money watching people race their skis through gates really close to me. Before I came to Williams, I had never skied, and only snowboarded once. Now, I’ve been able to traverse the full height of Jiminy, though I admit my form could use a few hours/days of practice.

In short, Williams has given me loads of opportunities and resources – something this school is very good at. On the other hand,  Williams has some work to do in regards to financial responsibility, the most glaring example being the useless plasma TVs in Paresky. We’re still figuring out the balance between student self-governance and campus support, and we’ll continue to do that in the days ahead.

I joined Ephblog because of the need I saw for a student author given the high readership (850 a day on average, the meter is in the right column), and because I think it fulfills a role that even the Record cannot. The Record says it’s independent, but it operates within college buildings and on college webspace. Ephblog is completely independent (sometimes for worse), but at its best, it provides a different kind of coverage/commentary, and I’m glad to be a part of it, at least most of the time.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your summer.