Amanda Giglio

I am going to preface this retrospective by admitting that I am currently using it as a means to procrastinate writing the final paper of my undergraduate career. Take that in whatever way you'd like.

Recently I attended The Phillies, an annual awards ceremony organized by the executive board of Philaletheis in an effort to celebrate the year's productions and say good-bye to the graduating seniors. In order to do this, the Phil board strategically sets up a video camera every Founder's Day and allows people to permanently document their thoughts and feelings about that year's seniors. Obviously the video is hilarious—there is usually an abundance of slightly (read: extremely) belligerent professions of love and admiration—but it also provides an interesting insight on the impact these seniors have made on Vassar's campus. I was dreading my segment of the video (mainly because I figured I would start sobbing and that's embarrassing because I'm an ugly crier), but was genuinely surprised by the comments people made about me. While I assumed my reel would consist of a few people who called me "nice" and/or "pleasant" and/or "tolerable" with a random spattering of the words "love" and "busy." It actually consisted of five or six different sets of people who immediately associated me with my hugs and thanking me for giving them.

Now, this is certainly not the first time I've been called a good hugger, I just didn't realize that it was one of my defining qualities, especially since I've always associated this campus with hugs. When I prospied at Vassar one of the first things I noticed was the abundance of physical affection on its campus. People were hugging everywhere and seemed genuinely happy to see each other. The abundance of love made it seem as if everyone on this campus had a place in the Vassar community and I immediately wanted to be a part of it.

Because of my preconceptions of the Vassar community, I walked onto this campus ready to embrace everyone and everything around me. I made sure to greet everyone I met during orientation activities and my first set of classes in an attempt to make friends and establish myself as an approachable person. (Fun fact: one of my first interactions with a fellow freshman was hugging/scaring Dana Cass—one of my housemates—in the Villard Room, since I recognized her from the 2011 Facebook group.) Within the first couple of weeks, my freshmen year roommates—two of my closest friends to this day—would make jabs at the number of people timidly responding to my overenthusiastic waves as we walked to the DC. I took the mockery in stride (kind of) and continued my efforts to make myself a place on this campus.

Over the last four years, I have probably waved at, smiled at, and (of course) hugged more people than I can count. I try to foster relationships with people who I meet in classes, at random parties, and even people I see in performances. Even though this probably seems obnoxious, it has allowed me to connect with people who exist in completely different worlds on this campus and bring these people together to form wonderful groups. It was only because I kept on saying hello to Jon Fuller after meeting him one random night in the Retreat that I was asked to direct bare the second semester of my freshman year and have one of the greatest experiences of my life. Bare, in turn, led me to FWA, a group that has defined my Vassar experience and brought more joy into my life than I can possibly express. Random connections with a member of my Construction of Gender class inspired me to intern at Battered Women's Services over my sophomore summer, the reason why I will be attending American University's Washington College of Law this fall. I always thought my hugs and my attitude were just for me—small gestures that made me feel like I had a significant place on this campus more so than the leadership roles that are listed underneath my name. I never knew that they did this for others as well.

I'm not telling everyone to go on a hug rampage right this very second. All I'm saying is that you should embrace our small campus for the tight-knit community that it is. Say hello to that random person you've always been interested in meeting and actually tell them that they were wonderful in that thing that you randomly saw because you know this other person; hug an acquaintance who seems to be having an off day; compliment a random stranger's outfit. Because you never know how much your small gesture—a gesture that I promise will make you feel good too—impacted that other person.

So, to everyone that I've attacked with love over the past four years, thank you. You have helped define my Vassar experience by making me feel loved, wanted, important, and special just by being there and I hope that hug did something for you too.

—Amanda Giglio is the outgoing president of the Future Waitstaff of America.