Matthew Brock

As I write my final column for The Miscellany News, I find myself conflicted about whether or not I am finally ready to leave Vassar. I know that the time has come for me to move on with my life and I look forward to starting law school this summer, but I can't help but wonder if the three years that I was here after my transfer from Brandeis University were truly enough time for me to fully enjoy everything that Vassar has to offer.

Over the last week of school, I will be facing a lot of lasts of my time here at Vassar. I will hand in my last exam; go to my last party at the Town Houses; see some wonderful people for the last time; eat at the All Campus Dining Center for the last time; and, for the last time, find that there is nothing there worth eating. While these experiences range from amazing to unpleasant, I'm not quite sure how I'll be able to go on without all of them in my life. It's as though I'm only just starting to get to know Vassar—the people, the places, the classes—and it feels as though I'm cutting this relationship short. Of course, I'll still come back from time to time—I've already made plans to meet up with underclassmen friends on Founder's Day, and my mom tells me that I have to repeatedly donate money until I've repaid my scholarship—but I know that Vassar and I will never be as closely connected as we have been over the last three years.

That being said, I should be ready to move on. When I arrived at Vassar three years ago, I knew that I wanted to go to law school afterwards and, when I started looking at schools I decided that Columbia was the best fit for me and, through some measure of luck, I got in. By the time this paper goes to print, I will have just signed a deal for an apartment near my new school, will be more than ready to leave the suburbs once and for all and will be looking forward to seeing whether the alums are right in telling me that law school involves less work than Vassar. By all accounts, I should be thrilled to be living out my dream, and I am, but at the same time I know that what comes next may very well not be able to measure up to how great my time at Vassar has been. So my challenge, going forward, will be to make sure that it does indeed measure up.

My goal for the next stage of my life will be to find a way to take Vassar with me wherever I go so that I can remember all that I have gained from my time here. I will of course remember everything I've learned in classes—from obscure political science statistics to how to write a four-part harmony—and I will hopefully still be able to keep in touch with my friends even after I leave Vassar to go to law school. On that last note, I am also fortunate that many of my classmates will be joining me in New York City next year, so I will always be able to relive some of the experiences that made my time at Vassar memorable, like helping each other procrastinate on important assignments or going to the local diner at 4 a.m. But the most important gifts that Vassar has given me will always be there, even if I'm miles away from the people and places that made it great.

I was recently being interviewed by the Campus Life Office for a video that will be shown to the Class of 2015—our replacements—at the next orientation. The last question threw me off—they asked, "How are you Vassar?" How, over the past three years, have I come to embody the Vassar College experience? I don't think that you can say that there is one Vassar College or one experience that everyone has here, but my personal Vassar experience has most certainly affected who I am today and who I will be for the rest of my life. Gone is the shy transfer student from Brandeis University who put academic success and distinction over all other priorities in life. Vassar taught me how to spread my wings, to try new experiences and to be confident that I will be able to do whatever I need to do to succeed. While I will miss Vassar in the years to come, I will always carry a part of it inside me—the part of me that Vassar helped create. So while I may be sad to leave Vassar, I know that Vassar and I will never fully be apart; the Class of 2011 will be able to move forward with all of the lessons that it has learned here as it faces that future nobody ever thought would arrive.

—Matthew Brock is the outgoing senior editor of The Chronicle and an outgoing contributing editor of The Miscellany News.