Senior year of high is the year to choose a college. Students apply to different colleges, hoping to get accepted to the one they have always wanted to go to, writing college essays, and just hoping they are good enough for admission to let them in. Even then, once you get accepted, you go to college visits, tour the campus, and there is always a moment where you just know, that the college is the right choice for you. Nothing else matters. There is always the one. The moment where you tell yourself yes, this is the college that I want to go to. After all that there, here is the reason why I chose to go to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.
There is the avenue moment.
When ever someone drives through the front gates of The Woods, they have the avenue moment. There is a moment of calmness, as though there was something that brought me to this place. As though nothing else mattered because I was home in a place that was safe. Almost every student on campus can say that they had the avenue moment. That the moment they came through the gates they knew that they wanted to come to SMWC and that this was the college they belonged to and the college belonged to them.
The people you talk to go out of their way to know your name, major your going into, and to get to know you.
A lot of other colleges, you are just another student looking into the college and would probably never remember your name or even recognize your face again. They might not even care to take the time to know you or who you are but SMWC did. The people I talked to went out of their way to know my name, what major I was going into, and made it really comfortable to be there. That made me feel as though I am not just another prospective student, but I was going to be another student if I choose to come here.
The beauty of the campus.
If anyone has ever been to campus, the beauty of it is amazing. There is nothing better then having to been able to be on campus and seeing the amazing beauty of it. Even if it was cold the first time I came, when I came again with all the green, I enjoyed of just all the beauty there was. Knowing how amazing it was to be in a place where there aren't cars everywhere, it isn't in the middle of town, and there are so many beautiful creatures on campus.
The calming presence of campus.
SMWC is one of the most calming campuses. There was a moment where I felt at peace and just knew. I knew that if this is a place would be a place where I could go anywhere when I needed a moment and become calm and feel better about the day. Not many other colleges can you go and just getting a calming moment just by being there.
An all females college.
Yes, we are no longer an all females college, but at the time SMWC was. I enjoyed that they empowered women in the classroom and outside the classroom. They were all about every woman having a voice and the fact that most of them did not care how you would of dressed to class or what you would of looked like drew me in. Yeah it was a little disappointing when we went co-ed because that meant the feeling would of changed a bit for many people, but didn't mean that being an all gender school did a good thing for me. Knowing that being all women gave me something that no other college could of.
The traditions, the traditions, the traditions.
I don't know about the rest of campus, but SMWC traditions are one of the most important things that brought me here. After coming through the gate for the first time, meeting some amazing people who went out of their way to get me here, the traditions got me under the hook. Big/little and ring day are the two huge things on campus that every student looks forward to. Every freshman and transfer student gets a big, who looks over them, takes care of them, and even guides them. There is a freshman, junior mixer when the juniors and freshman mix together and play a bunch of games, and at the end of the night, the juniors get to pick out who they want as their little. Then during the month, the bigs will leave notes or find creative ways to get in contact with their littles but the littles don't know who their big is. Then during big little week, littles get locked in their room at a certain time and then that is when the bigs get let loose. They go to their little's door, slide them notes, decorate their doors where they have to climb out of and leave them goodies outside the door for the morning. If the little chooses to dress up and preform, the big will leave costumes outside their door for them to wear and give them instructions of what they have to perform for the day. At the end of the week, the bigs can choose any way to revel themselves and they enjoy the time getting to know their bigs. And every year, the juniors get their rings. They dress up in their caps and gowns, gather together in the church, and receive their ring that they have worked three years for to get. The tradition started many years ago and is still going today. Every year a junior gets more and more excited as they count down and pound on the table in O'Shag every month. It is the one way every Woodsie know another Woodsie from the next.
Everyone has different moments of why they choose SMWC. It could of the history of the wonder woman who came here and made the college, the sisters of providence who are amazing women and are just like grandmothers to many of us, because a mother, aunt, grandmother, or even another female role model came here and living up to the family is a thing, there are many reasons to choose SMWC. There are so many things around that bring this campus together as one big family. The teachers are amazing and go out of their way to make sure their students succeed and reach the highest potentials that every student can get to. Caring for each student of a different level that each student needs. Having so many resources to us that we couldn't probably get at other places. Even the traditions that we have such as getting to know our bigs or even the most amazing moment of getting our rings. SMWC is home and always will be, even if things changed and it isn't as it used to be.
