What a Welcome at William and Mary Feels Like

The first week freshmen are at the College of William and Mary, everyone is welcoming them.  The town welcomes them, the faculty welcomes them, committees and organizations welcome them.  When I was a freshman, everywhere I went there seemed to be a new welcome party, and in its plethora the welcomes began to feel less important.  Okay, okay, I’m welcomed, I thought, I get it.

All of these welcome committees happen during freshman orientation.  Few upperclassman have hit the College yet and freshman spend the first week getting acclimated to the school– our policies, our academics, our layout.  The day before classes though, the campus starts really filling up.  Upperclassmen flood the bookstore, move into their dorms, begin meeting up with friends.  The campus comes alive.

By this time, I had been welcomed more than half a dozen times.  The night before classes started, I went for a run.  I was living in Spotswood, on the far west side of campus.  I decided to take the classic run across campus, through the wooded paths, down the Sunken Gardens and into Colonial Williamsburg.  This run turned out to be the most important, authentic welcome I received as a freshman, and the one that has stayed with me the longest.

I was running down the Sunken Gardens.  Students were playing Frisbee on the field.  An a capella group was practicing on the steps of Washington hall.  A student and his friends were gathered around the Wren building playing and passing around a guitar.  I hit Colonial Williamsburg and ran past a ghost tour.  DOG street was lit up and the bookstore’s lights were humming.  I thought, this is exactly where I want to be.  The campus was alive and welcoming.  It was showing itself to me, it’s life, it’s possibilities.  I remember the night before classes feeling a complete inner calm.  I had made the right decision.  William and Mary was my home.

Allison Anoll ’09