So Many Thank Yous, So Little Time

I could probably write a novel on why I am grateful for William & Mary.  But blogs are supposed to be readable and Shakespeare did tell us that “brevity is the soul of wit”.  So while being brief but paying due diligence to an institution that has given me so much for which to be grateful here it goes…my own top 10 list.

1. I am grateful to William & Mary for an academic passion.  I came to the College with one major in mind but after taking a General Education Requirement course in comparative politics I found a passion for the study of government.  I ended up being a double major with government  being my primary concentration.
2. I am grateful to William & Mary for expanding my horizons.  It got me out of Iowa…enough said.
3. I am grateful to William & Mary for high tea.  My freshman roommate, a Caucasian girl from Richmond, had grown up in Cairo and attended a British school.  She and her sister (she was a triplet) held high tea every day at 4:00 for our entire undergraduate tenure.  I have never had more amazing, random, and amazingly random conversations.
4. I am grateful to William & Mary for failure.  William & Mary provided a safe and nurturing environment in which I felt comfortable enough to take risks that I knew may not turn out well.  If a high-achieving person can learn how to fail they can accomplish so much.
5. I am grateful to William & Mary for my best friend.  I met her in my freshman seminar.  Ms. Ketchum, meet Ms. Begleiter.  Today we are Mrs. Vonhof and Mrs. Livingston.  We’ve been roommates, confidants, bridesmaids, and best friends ever since.
6. I am grateful to William & Mary for a career.  In high school I didn’t know that higher education was a professional field.  Through being a tour guide I became introduced to the Admission Office and through my work with the Student Advancement Association I was introduced to additional campus administrators.  Now I am pursuing a master’s degree in higher education and I’ve found a professional passion.
7. I am grateful to William & Mary for the love of my life.  We met at a fraternity party my freshman year.  We went on our first date my sophomore year.  We became engaged the year I graduated and we’ve been happily married for 3.5 years.
8. I am grateful to William & Mary for a legacy.  My former boss trusted me enough to create an interview program for the College which I did after being in the office for only six months.  We are now going into our sixth year of the interview program.  The program has gained a fantastic reputation among prospective students and is a cherished program at the College.  It has been my greatest professional challenge and my greatest professional pleasure.
9. I am grateful to William & Mary for a challenge.  William & Mary challenged me to expand my horizons, to open my mind, to meet and learn from a diverse group of people, to become more educated and more cultured, and to think outside my box and to exist outside my comfort zone.
10. I am grateful to William & Mary for me.  William & Mary made me a better version of myself for reasons 1-9 and many many more.  I am more outgoing, more confident, more adventurous, more open-minded, more accepting, and more educated.  I am who I am due in large part to the experiences I had and the education I received both in and outside of the College’s classrooms.  I love who I have become and who I am continuing to become as I continue my tenure at the College.

So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU William & Mary.  To say that I am grateful is a massive understatement.

– Wendy Livingston