Growth on The Sunken Garden

One of my first stand-out memories at William & Mary seems like a scene from a movie—I was walking home from improv practice on a Wednesday night, at around 10 o’ clock, when the sounds of a cappella began to ring out over Old Campus. When I walked past the Thomas Jefferson statue, I saw a huge UFO lifting off from the Sunken Garden, our main quad.  I was startled, but as it turns out, the floating light was a runaway lantern from the Chinese Student Organization’s annual lantern festival. I sat on the path directly between the Wren Building and the Sunken Garden, overcome by the COLLEGE-NESS of the night. A cappella, improv, lantern festival; all on a random weekday evening.  It was wonderfully overwhelming. Many of my favorite flashbulb memories from the past three years have happened on the Sunken Garden.

I remember tossing a frisbee with my two best friends on the Sunky G as a torrential downpour started. We stayed where we were, watching people sprint out of academic buildings towards the dry safety of their dorms holding rain jackets over their heads; we just laughed and wrung out our socks.  I remember sitting on a stage left over from a weekend concert rejoicing in a free pita (thanks, W&M Washington Center) and a free afternoon with pals. I remember walking down the main steps of the Sunken Garden after the biggest snow of college; people came out and built massive snowmen (and a giant snow duck).

When I look back on my three years at William & Mary, most of my milestones and memories can somehow be linked to the Sunken Garden. As I look forward to my senior year, I am SO excited for the rest that this strangely shaped field (and more regularly shaped campus) will hold!

Lexie Garcia, ‘17
Admission Senior Interviewer

Lexie is a rising senior and interviewer in the Office of Undergraduate Admission this summer. A Marketing major and Computer Science minor from Virginia Beach, Virginia, Lexie loves spending Friday mornings in a Hawaiian shirt on the Sadler Center Terrace, getting up only to pet dogs.