For the past nine months I’ve known where I would be living and working post-graduation, and that’s allowed me to stress less and enjoy life and Bryn Mawr more. This has especially been true this past week, as I’ve been participating in Senior Week with the class of 2018. I went on the famous Boat Cruise, sailing around with classmates as well as professors and staff on the Spirit of Philadelphia. I also went on the New York trip and to La Peg for senior cocktails, eating and drinking to our hearts’ content.

Me, Rachel Xu, Stephanie Cao, and Ziting Shen (all ’18) on the cruise

As senior year winds down, I’m reflecting on how the days have been long, but the years short. This year has been more relaxing than most (probably because I haven’t had to worry about post-graduation or summer plans since August) and continued working for the same company over the school year. Here are some of my favorite parts from my senior year.

• Competing with the table tennis team in NCTTA regionals and making it to Nationals in Texas. Biggest regret of college? Not joining the table tennis team sooner! We all got really close really fast, and it was a blast traveling with them. I got better alongside  everyone and also with Coach Dan, and I’m excited to continue those skills in tech company tournaments and leagues.
  

  Getting low for a ball versus Penn

• Traveling to New York City, DC, Boston, and Montreal for work trips. I was fortunate to travel to San Francisco from New York three times for work this summer, but that was to a place I knew. I liked traveling to events, mentoring, and giving demos during the school year in new places so I could explore more. I’m already applying to speak at conferences and events next year, and plan on visiting Bryn Mawr if I’m ever in the area.
  

  Demoing Twilio at Wellesley Hack

• Winning my first hackathon prize at Y-Hack and seeing high school friends there. I was a finalist at a competition the summer before sophomore year, but I’d never actually won anything! In New Haven, I caught up with friends and won best use of the Viacom Data-Point API!
• Going to the Eagles Parade when they won the Super Bowl. The atmosphere and community was amazing, and I know I won’t get that anywhere else.
  

  Me, Rachel Bruce’18, Devica Bhutani’18, Hannah Terz’18

  

  Celebrating in the Campus Center

• Going to Villanova when they won March Madness. Again, it was crazy to see the spirit and excitement on Lancaster Ave.
  

  me, Abby, and Mariam celebrating

• Visiting New York more often to see shows and events like Waitress, Once on this Island, and the Broadway Princess Party. It’s only two hours away, so I jumped at the chance to visit with friends, Bryn Mawr Activities, and see my work team.
  

  Laura Osnes (Cinderella, Grease, Bandstand, Bonnie and Clyde, etc.)

• Thesising on a project that I loved and wanted to do (I’m still continuing work on it!) Thesis is over, it’s submitted, and I’m waiting for a grade, but that does not mean work needs to stop on the overall project. That’s one thing I like about code: you can always add on, iterate, and improve.
• Banter Blogging! I stopped shelving in Canaday Library because I began doing contract work for my internship-turned-full-time job that involved code and travel and also had gotten the Banter Blogger position. It has been really neat to write about life on-campus, different events and activities, classes, and more. I’ve loved getting feedback from professors, classmates, and people I barely know who say they read something I wrote that resonated with them or was interesting. I’ll use some of these skills next year when I go back to blogging for the Twilio company blog!
• Senior traditions! I loved Bedtime Stories and Senior Strut at the end of Hell Week, May Day’ing gifts down, ringing Taylor Bell once I finished my last assignment or final, and now Senior Week activities like a cruise, cocktails, Six Flags, a brewery tour, a trip to New York, and more.
  

  Story time in Pem East when I read the Giving Tree

I’m now preparing for a quick trip to Paris and the French Open, as well as a cross-country road trip depending on a tax law that could affect my work relocation stipend (if you have any recommendations, do reach out!) I hope to see classmates and friends across the country.

One reason I chose Bryn Mawr over other women’s colleges was because I thought the traditions sounded cooler. Though much has changed in four years, I still believe that statement to be true.

A lot of traditions are focused on first years, but May Day has some neat aspects just for seniors. The night before May Day, seniors run around campus “May Day-ing” gifts down to non-seniors, leaving items outside their doors. Some are items passed down to us years before, and some are items we choose to start passing down.

Holding bags of May Day gifts and a stuffed monkey to “May Day” down

I felt like Santa Claus carrying large bags of goods with tags as classmates with suitcases did the same. I thought of the items that had been passed down to me, and thought of items that others would like, and tried to make each one meaningful.

Some May Day gifts outside my hell-grandchild My Nguyen’s door

At 7am Sunday morning, seniors walked to the President’s House to wake up KCass. Following the parade, students ran around the May Pole for their class year, tying different-colored ribbons around it. That’s one of my favorite parts of May Day–it’s fun, funny, fast-paced, and exhilarating.

Marching in the parade

Finally came another just-for-seniors activity: hoop racing. Many students inherited hoops as May Day gifts (I inherited a computer science one from my hell mother) and students walked or ran with them down Senior Row following KCass.

At the end of Senior Row and hoop racing with Devica Bhutani’18

There were concerts, shows, games, and activities throughout the day, but one of my favorite parts of May Day always includes lounging around on Merion Green, soaking up the sun and seeing friends and classmates dressed in white.

Finally, at 8 p.m. came Step Sing. This has become one of my favorite parts of traditions as I’ve grown closer to classmates and thus grown comfortable singing aloud. Songs include ones like Lean on Me, This is what Dreams are Made of (from the Lizzie McGuire movie), Survive, and more. It’s very empowering and fun to belt songs out, and seeing it all happen from the Senior Steps made it more so.

The view from Senior Steps of College Hall for Step Sing

Selfie on the Senior Steps with our songbooks and lanterns

At the conclusion of the night came Good Nights where seniors walked through a long, windy line of non-senior classmates holding their lanterns and singing the good night song. This is one of the most emotional parts because usually seniors are the last ones to walk through as we say good night to non-seniors and also because this was our last one ever! Many began crying after seeing certain friends in line and realizing that they won’t be here next year. Following good nights, the juniors crashed the Senior Steps for the first time, and then many seniors walked their hellchildren in the junior class down Senior Row as our hell-parents had done only a year ago.

I thought of my hell mom and hell grandmother who are both software engineers in Mountain View, my hell grandmother who is working on her electrical engineering Ph.D. at UCLA, and my adopted hell mother who is a software engineer in Boston. I thought of my own hell child, my adopted one, my hell grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I thought of past, present, and future, and how traditions bring everyone together.

Next year, I’ll attend an alumnae May Day celebration (most likely with old classmates and my hell family in the area). It won’t be the same, but it’s time for the next class and generation to be the seniors. As senior co-president Ann Tran put it, Bryn Mawr traditions are dynamic. They change as the student body changes, and it’s time for new seniors to come in and for the class of 2022 to take over my Dark Blue color.

The computer science hoop (started in 2008) passed on to me from my hell mom Jordan Henck’17 last year. Now, it’s with Kennedy Ellison’19.

My main hope is that I’ve left my mark here, whether it’s been through traditions like hell family or May Day gifts, as a Teaching Assistant or Banter Blogger, as a tennis or table tennis player, or simply as a student.

Watching the Class of 2019 crash the Senior Steps.

I gave my thesis presentation with the rest of the computer science majors (below.)

At Bryn Mawr, we have what some would call a mantra: “done is good.” In a community of perfectionists, it can be difficult to let go and stop working on something, even if we are passionate about that something. It was tough to focus on my thesis presentation when I wanted to keep working on the apps even though I had already submitted, so it did not matter.

The resemblance between us (me below) is uncanny (kidding.)

Demoing my iOS app (web app hosted on https://esiegle.digital.brynmawr.edu)

As I watched all the thesis presentations (I was the first one to go), it was really neat to see how far everyone took their projects since we first began talking about them in Senior Seminar in late January. It was also cool to think of how far we’ve come since freshman year. I met Kara and Rachel in CMSC110 and went to my first hackathon with Rachel and Lexie. It’s crazy to see how things turned out, and that we all stuck together for so long.

Xuan Huang examining meshes in Game of Thrones

Lexie Zhang and Rachel Xu discussing Liquid Haskell

Kara Breeden thesising on robotics

Post-thesis picnic with (L-R) My Nguyen’20, Kennedy Ellison’19, Kara Breeden’18, Kellie Dinh’19

It was also a nice ending to celebrate the conclusion of theses with the department and classmates from other classes (mainly sophomores and juniors) who will be thesising soon. I remember seeing senior thesis presentations both last year and two years ago, thinking the seniors were so smart, cool, and accomplished! I hope those who watched our presentations thought the same.

cakes