To the Editors:

After almost 20 years of not being a student, I am a student again. I am reading books someone else told me to read, writing papers and remembering APA Style (and paying for the privilege!).

Last time I was a student, in the early 1980s at Oberlin, I wrote my papers longhand and then typed them on my (high school graduation gift) Olivetti typewriter. By the time I was a senior, it was possible to word process your papers on one of the 10 or so college machines, if you’d signed up in advance. Printing required a request to the Computing Center staff to set it up for you. Microsoft was Bill Gates’ garage hobby at the time, most likely, and the Internet was maybe still a top-secret military invention.

The only food available in town (aside from Gibson’s, of course) was pizza. Coffee was a drink you could get at the Campus Restaurant, where it was pretty bad, the snack bar, where it was pretty bad, and sometimes the co-ops, if it wasn’t under boycott. During my sophomore or junior year, you could finally get beer on campus, at the Rathskellar in Wilder basement. Otherwise, you had to make a Johnny’s run for real (read: Robin Hood) beer.

We sat in protest of apartheid and in support of divestment. We traveled to some small Ohio town to wave signs as President Reagan was passing through. We had no tattoos. We danced to Prince, the Clash and Devo. We went to see The English Beat in Finney, whose opening act was a little known new band out of Georgia called R.E.M. (We stood on the seats and the College banned rock bands from Finney more or less forever. Sorry.)

Thank you for staying with me for that little stroll down memory lane. My point, actually, is that some things are really different in the world since I was a student last time. But now, as I pursue my Master’s in Educational Psych at the University of Colorado, I realize that some things feel pretty similar. I still delight in what I’m doing every day. I feel a connection to my current teachers that I hope will endure. I still feel fascinated with most of what I’m learning. I still want to put my all into what I’m doing, and I do it not because I’m supposed to, but because I want to. I still care about what’s practical, what works, what helps. These are qualities that were developed, or at least nurtured, in me at Oberlin.

As you head towards finals, try to remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s not just about now; it’s about your life, the things you love, the curiosity you have. It’ll all go with you, even if some things do change.

–Ellen Hertzman
OC ’85
Executive Board Member
Alumni Association