Emily Wilkerson ’15

In my last entry for the Oberlin blogs, I look forward to my next adventure, look back at who I was before coming to Oberlin, and maybe learn a lesson in-between.

I'm back in Niskayuna for the summer and somehow it's already been a month and a half since graduation. What have I been doing in all that time?

Five items I crossed off, two items I missed.

I decide to take a walk down memory lane and revisit some of my favorite concerts from my time at Oberlin.

Commencement week: I lived to tell the tale.

In which I cover how I went about researching, writing, and sharing my capstone.

Three weeks ago it hit me that I'll be leaving Oberlin soon.

In honor of the beginning of All Roads, I've decided to bring back my series in which I give long form answers to questions I've received on tours. This time I'm answering what I think can seem like a taboo question - "what is your least favorite thing about Oberlin?"

In my classes I'm writing, reading, listening, watching, and learning learning learning. Outside of them I'm tackling that most dreaded question, "what are you doing next year?"

In which I fangirl over early music.

aka Brohio aka my little brother's visit to Oberlin

Winter term is over! Long live spring semester! Long live Snowberlin!

In the words of former blogger/current friend Ida, "it's hard to talk about hard things!" I try to talk about them anyway.

Looking for an exciting and glamorous winter term project? Try capstone research!

A (hopefully humorous) look into my notebook from Contemporary Literary Theory: Post-modernity and Imagination.

The stand-out books I was assigned this semester.

There are a variety of questions tour guides get from prospective students applying to the college, but who are interested in pursuing music through the conservatory, but they all come down to the same thing: how involved can I be in the conservatory as a college student?

"So what do you do on the weekends?"

or How I Get to Oberlin or The Perks of Life in the Rust Belt

On re-entering the Oberlin bubble.

I didn't just bring tchotchkes back to Oberlin with me, I also brought some intangible things, new words, new experiences, and of course, lessons learned.

The first thing I remember about orientation is the excitement that came from constantly introducing myself to other people, telling them about my passions and interests and hearing about theirs in turn.

Now that I've jumped the hurdle that is finals week and gotten a little bit of distance from my classes, I figured I'd finally write about them.

One of my biggest frustrations over the course of my time at Oberlin is that male authors have dominated my reading lists. This may come as a surprise to some; Oberlin is a progressive institution so you'd think that I'd be reading works by people of all genders. Not so.

Attempting to articulate my thoughts on place, home, and my relation to it. (Boy, study abroad sure can make these things complicated.)

... but you can't take the Oberlin out of the girls.

When I travel underground, I miss out on a lot of what's going on in Munich. That's part of why I decided not to buy another U-Bahn semester ticket and have instead devoted myself to biking. I haven't been biking around the city for too long, but I've already started seeing the city differently (and sweating a lot more).

Why I applied, why I enrolled, and what I learned in the process.

Oberlin is a small place, but because I ended up there and followed where my academic interests led, I've gotten to see the world, or at least a small section of Central Europe.

Although I've lived in Munich for more than four months, I still have a lot to learn about my new home. Since coming to that realization, I'm so glad I chose a yearlong study abroad program.

How I ended up with two deutschen Thanksgivings.

Studying abroad isn't all fun and games. At the end of the day (or in my case, the beginning of it) I do have to go to class, do homework, and make it all happen auf Deutsch . Here's what I'm learning about.

The first post in my study abroad series. A bit later than intended, but still full of information about finding and applying to programs that interest you.

Hey class of 2017, this one's for you.

I took good classes, ended the semester on a high note, and held off on my urge to be cheesy until the last few sentences.

In which I reveal that I'm studying abroad next year (yes, for the whole year). Surprise?

Looking for information on Oberlin's a cappella scene? Nothing But Treble is a good place to start.

Robert Frost said, "poetry is what gets lost in translation." Let me tell you why I disagree.

In which I gain insight into my life by going to office hours, finally reveal my schedule for the semester, ramble about my current favorite Northern European minimalists, and plug things that I'm involved with.

When I was in my end-of-semester-only-able-to-think-in-wordplay stage, National Story Translating Month (a nod to NaNoWriMo) was the title I almost gave my winter term project, which was translating a German short story into English. Luckily, a friend intervened and I ended up calling it "Winter Term German Translation Intensive." Alas, sometimes professionalism has to win out over cleverness.

All of the books I read during fall semester

Comparative literature!

It turns out that 140 characters isn't enough to say everything that I want to say about learning a foreign language. Whoda thunk it?

A virtual tour of my favorite places in Oberlin.

Better known as my course load.

Over the course of this post, a distraction from the tempest that is add-drop turned into a potential life lesson about quitting the things that make me unhappy.

Spoiler alert: I started out without friends, ended up having a cool room, eventually made awesome friends, and witnessed some sustainability fails.

My experience on Oberlin's waitlist.

My friend Abbie + Oberlin + gorgeous weather = an amazing time

... spring semester that is!

...I wanna write you a (winter term) blog post. That's how the song goes, right?

Winter Term is a time for one for-credit project and as many sub-goals as you can handle, right?

In which I weigh my blasé attitude towards NYE against my love of my birthday.

In order to give myself a break from sitting at my computer, paralyzed by my probably needless anxiety, I will write about a simpler time, a time when finals were a distant specter and winter break was eons away - last week.

It's just like Julie Andrews says (sort of), "I simply list some of my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad!"

A brief introduction to me, for you.