3.11.10
, and I love fun facts. So I was super excited today when I was at tour guide training and I found out this awesome fun fact about the Sweet Briar library:
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It’s the most expensive building built during the Great Depression. Sweet Briar actually signed the contract papers the day before the stock market crashes so all the card were in place for construction!
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Other fan favorites:
- Dave Matthews was married in the Sweet Briar chapel to his wife, a Sweet Briar alum
- The cover picture to one of his albums is taken on the dock of our Lower Lake
- Before the new addition was added this year, the Daisy Williams gymnasium was the oldest operating gym in the NCAA. Now it’s the newest building on campus.
- Sweet Briar is its own emancipated town, and therefore we have an official crime rate of 0%
- We have a White Oak tree on campus that has been growing in its exact spot since before Columbus discovered America/the Caribbean.
- The Declaration of Independence hanging in the library is rumored to be one of the original copies written by and present at the Congresses in which the founding fathers were present. That factoid has yet to be confirmed, but I’m going to continue to spread to story until proven otherwise
Categories: Pop Culture, Sweet Briar College
Comments: None
3.11.10
One of the most under-appreciated things about Sweet Briar is that buildings are open 24/7. Except for the library, any sweet briar student can work/study in any dorm or academic building any time they want. That means that it’s currently 11:26 pm, and a group of us are settled in a student lounge in Gray doing work…and probably working for the rest of the night/morning. No one kicks us out. No need to change rooms when your muse finally hits you upside the head at 3 a.m.
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I love it, and I never fully appreciate it until I studied abroad in South Africa where they locked all the academic buildings at 4:30 pm. sharp. Since returning I’ve been extra thankful every time I roll into the chapel or Benedict at 2 in the morning to do work or watch a movie.
Categories: Higher-ed, Sweet Briar College
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3.10.10
Theres something magical about Sweet Briar, in that it continues to store more people for me to meet. You’d think that as someone who has lived on this campus, really likes to (I don’t want to say gossip, but…) know things about goings’ on, and is involved in a lot of different stuff I would know everyone. Every time people hear I go to a school with 700 students they say ‘o my goodness. So you must know everyone’.
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Easy to assume. But not true. Just today I met a senior I’d never spoken to! She’s a friend of a friend, and we all piled in to car to go rock climbing (we were ‘exersising’…not avoiding homework!). I kinda knew who she by her reputation and I knew we had some other mutual friends, but this was our first interaction in the 3 years we’ve been on campus together! I love days like today. I got to catch up with some friends from over-seas, some friends who live across the quad, and I got to make a new friend. PLUS, my friend (see, it relates!) sent me a link to this awesome show on National Geographic called Sizing Up Sperm that takes those awesomely staged historical reenactments from the History Channel and makes it a million times more epic.
Categories: Pop Culture, Sweet Briar College
Comments: None
3.9.10
“We were gathered there precisely because we’re committed to the expansion of possibility, the awakening of insight, and the deeper understanding of humanity that can follow from those moments of intellectual disequilibrium.
I left the lecture thinking that this may be why community seems so essential to liberal education. It would be possible to encounter those questions and experience that disequilibrium alone. But in a community of fellow philosophers, other people seeking truth and understanding in a spirit of mutual respect, it’s much harder to lose yourself. With guides and fellow travelers, moments of disorientation are much less troubling, and it’s more likely that all will find what they’re seeking.”
I love the feeling of ‘intellectual disequilibrium’ that comes from challenging thoughts and ideas. These last few weeks have been a.)busy b.)important c.)stressful, and looking back at it I can’t help but be thankful for family, friends, and faculty here at Sweet Briar. They have this magical knack for pushing you off your intellectual equilibrium but also being there to celebrate when you re-equalize.
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So far this semester I’ve reexamined the history of Christianity and the meaning of the New Testament, discussed the possibility that peace-keeping missions sometimes promote more conflict, and studied the pros and cons of ‘organic’ foods. I may not have completely changed my mind about all these things, but they were none-the-less interesting and influential discussions. I mean, who wants to walk around constantly being told they’re correct? That gets boring.
Categories: Higher-ed, Sweet Briar College
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3.9.10
the week before Spring Break! Everyone is busy with papers and tests and all sorts of projects and events before Spring Break starts on Saturday. Things of note:
1.) The (hopefully) last round of elections are this week. Girls selected on Friday will be your SGA excutive committee and upper-class women officers for next year! The class of 2014 (you) will have elections within the first few weeks of being on campus in the fall.
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2.) The Common Reading Experience is a quasi-experiment for the whole campus to read the same book in order to foster discussion. 2 years ago it was Omnivores Dilemna. Last year it was Reading Lolita in Tehran. We haven’t decided how exactly that discussion will be formated (within English 104, book clubs, etc.) BUT, I will let you know when we have the ok to release the title because it sounds like such a great book.
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3.) Campus is gearing up for the upcoming Admissions Open House! I’m getting really excited meeting all the girls who are posting their SBC acceptance and intentions to visit on Facebook. I had a great time at my Open House (in 2007…o my goodness, how time has flown!), and I actually met my roommate in passing and didn’t realize it until 1/2 way through freshman year. Point: get excited to meet some fellow awesome women and potentially your future roommates and friends.
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4.) The weather this week is supposed to be beautiful, so as I take pictures I’ll make sure to share them with you. O, let forward to a future blog installment about the awesomenesss of SWEBOP and the free rock climbing in Lynchburg.
Categories: Sweet Briar College
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