Welcome to The Spectator Features Section’s new series: Senior Reflections. Each week until graduation we will be interviewing seniors and asking them to reflect on their four years at Hamilton. This week I sat down with Lizzie Herr ’24.
How do you feel with graduation nearly six weeks away?
“I think a lot of my friends and I have discussed how graduating isn’t that scary, it’s more just like sad leaving this environment behind. Leaving all the relationships and communities that we have on this campus behind is the sad part. Of course there are moments where it’s like, oh it’s scary to graduate, like what’s next? But I think I’ve had enough moments of being an adult over my four years of living by myself in two different cities. It’s sad to say goodbye but I know that I’m prepared for what comes next.”
Do you feel like you’ve changed over the course of your time at Hamilton?
“I think I have definitely changed a lot. The first thing I think about is just how much my perspective has widened and how I’m so confident that I’ll never be done learning. Learning about lives and perspectives so different from mine through classes here has been really wonderful. I think Hamilton is a very friendly environment, much friendlier of the environment than my high school and that encouraged me to be my more true outgoing self and definitely quirkier self. Yeah, getting a little weirder. Weirder people are more interesting!”
What advice would you give to students in the grade below you about how to get the most out of their Hamilton experience?
“Take advantage of opportunity. I say this to a lot of prospective students as well in my job, that there’s so much going on here at all times that you simply can’t do all of it, and making those choices is sometimes the hardest part. But, making an occasional choice to show up to some programming that usually wouldn’t be a part of your daily life is such a privilege. Also, never close yourself off to new relationships. I think my bubble of Hamilton friends has just expanded every single semester, which is great.”
What makes Hamilton special?
“The community. The open curriculum is really wonderful and sets up a really awesome classroom environment because everyone that’s in your classes wants to be in your class. It creates a really lively and vibrant classroom environment but I also think the culture of the open curriculum carries into activities outside the classroom. I think people are very encouraged to try new things outside of the classroom, which is the experience I had in joining rugby. I know a lot of people here that do something that they never thought they would have done in high school.”
What has been a meaningful extracurricular experience at Hamilton?
“I’ve really enjoyed just being on the long form investigative team on The Spec. Because of my admissions job, I’m always promoting Hamilton, which is really exciting, because I do love it here, but I also think showing my love for the community is also thinking about how the community can improve. I’ve been able to reflect on how lucky I am to be here, but also ask, how can I make the knowledge about how this campus has formed and the origins of the campus and where we need to improve, more accessible to students and faculty?”
Is there a particular moment that you remember when you realized that Hamilton was a place that you belonged?
“There totally was, and it was really early on. As a Jan, when we started, we had a four day quarantine where we had to get two negative tests. So we were in our rooms doing virtual programming for orientation. But then we finally got out of testing and we still had our masks on outside but the whole Jan group went to go snowshoeing. And it was one of those moments where you’re just like chatting with all these people and it was just so exciting, especially post pandemic. I think in that moment, snowshoeing, I was being shown all the wonderful different personalities. And the fact that everyone wanted to do this and be together even though we didn’t know each other.”
What are three of your favorite memories at Hamilton?
“In the fall of this year, my friends hosted a corn dog party. We had a grill out, and we had this awesome barbecue situation, and played games, and that was like a really fun way to come back and celebrate being back as seniors. Second memory was my first rugby game ever in Ithaca, and it was so hilarious because we were playing on turf, and that’s terrible. This was only our second week playing rugby. I remember we went to Wegmans after to get lunch and we were like, that was crazy. One time I pranked my roommate who’s kind of introverted and doesn’t like attention and we got her a buffergram in McEwen and it was just a really funny moment.”
What are you excited about for post-grad?
“I feel like it’s taboo to talk about what you’re excited about but we should. Okay, it makes me sad, but I’m also excited to be a stranger again. I’m excited to meet new people who’ve had very different experiences. I think I’m definitely excited to see what Hamilton looks like post-college as well. A lot of my friends and I had this great moment abroad where we did kind of a big reunion in Amsterdam. We were like, okay, this is great because these friendships will continue to exist beyond this campus. I feel excited to see Hamilton people out in the wild for sure. I’m also excited to be challenged and try out a bunch of different work environments. I have a lot of things I want to do career-wise so I’m excited to see what fits and what doesn’t fit.”
