Now that I’m almost midway through my final semester at Oberlin, I figure now is as good a time as any to answer the age-old question of the Oberlin bloggers: why Oberlin?
Oberlin was my first choice of college when I began applying way back in high school, which has only dawned on me as an incredibly long time ago. Throughout my college search, I mainly looked at small, liberal arts colleges with strong writing programs as I was always certain that I wanted to major in English at the very least.
Oberlin stood out to me because it was one of the few colleges that fit that criteria but also had a creative writing degree: something I was very interested in pursuing but hadn’t had a ton of luck finding in undergraduate education. Oberlin presented the ideal situation for me as I was able to pursue my academic passion — literary analysis — and my creative passion of fiction writing. The overlap between English department courses that also counted towards the Creative Writing degree made this process achievable. Don’t get me wrong, it was still hard work, but never to the point where I felt that I had to pick my career or academic interests over my personal ones. So, I suppose that that’s my first reason: passion pursuits are not incongruous with academic pursuits at Oberlin. And this isn’t exclusive to the Creative Writing department either: I have many friends who are also pursuing Studio Art, Cinema, and Theater alongside their other majors. I have even been able to pick up a Journalism concentration in my senior year despite the fact that I only realized I was truly interested in journalism as a career path in my junior year. This is all to say, if there’s something that you really want to do, staff will work closely with you to make sure that you can make it a reality!
Another thing that helped to cement my decision to study at Oberlin was the wide breadth of extracurricular activities and student life communities. When I did an online tour over the Covid-19 pandemic, my tour guide mentioned several groups that not only piqued my interest but also became integral parts of my time here — namely, the Swing and Blues Dance club. The guide talked about ExCos, CATSS, the various student publications, intramural sports, and the large number of theatrical productions put on every year. What this all sounded like to me was an opportunity to dip my toes into a great variety of things that I’d always wanted to, but never had the commitment, to just try out. Learning anything from scratch can be a terrifying prospect but I felt that Oberlin placed a strong emphasis on both experienced and beginner levels. There’s certainly nothing holding back say, a seasoned ballerina from participating in OBallet’s advanced lesson groups. But somebody who wants to learn ballet from the ground up won’t be left hanging: OBallet has a separate beginner section as well. For me, this encompasses a larger theme of what Oberlin has done for me: allowing me to simultaneously hone my skills and to also develop entirely new ones.
I could go on and talk about how the small class sizes allowed me lots of individualized help from professors. Or the significant presence of student advocacy groups who are always striving to improve the world.Or how you can get lost in the sheer amount of live music there is to hear. But, of course, the people are what truly make a place. During my in-person tour of Oberlin’s campus, even in the cold Ohio autumn, I saw just groups and groups of students sitting out on the green or walking together. There was a person playing guitar in Wilder Bowl. A girl in full trad-goth makeup. Friends groups who wildly waved at our passing tour. There was a vibrancy that I struggle to express even now about the people on the campus. High school was a time where I found it difficult to connect with others and even to hold conversations. My hobbies and interests rarely aligned with my classmates’ and I kept quiet most of the time out of fear of saying the wrong thing. My first week as a freshman at Oberlin, I felt that wall begin to crack.
It is truly impossible to describe how wonderful and open-hearted Oberlin students are, it sounds so ridiculously cheesy just to even say. So, what I will say is that the girl who lived a few doors down from me since my freshman year has been my roommate and best friend ever since then. That my friend has been inviting me to play in his D&D campaigns since the first one he ran in freshman year. That there are some people, who I only regularly see in passing now, but I have had one long conversation with that was exactly what I needed at the time. That I never found it easy to talk to people until I started at Oberlin college.
I’ll end with a little anecdote. I was at a birthday party last semester when one of the guests there, a girl I’ve known since first year but not very well, bounded up to me — buzzing with energy. We chatted and she said something to me along the lines of: “You know, you were really shy when I first met you, Ida. But you’ve really come out of your shell.” Sure, it was a very blunt thing to say. And I think she’s absolutely right. I’d always considered myself an introvert prior to college however, I’ve come to realize that I’m actually quite extroverted. Maybe I just hadn’t found the right people yet.
