I've been meaning to start an actual blog for sometime now... That being said, here goes nothing.
When I started seriously looking at colleges, there was only one I wanted to go to. I received a scholarship there during my Junior year. It was the only school I applied to, and I got in. To this day I couldn't tell you exactly why WC drew me in. I knew that I wanted to be a person to my professors, not just a number. And while there are a number of small colleges out there, it was WC that I choose.
I've had my issues with WC. But then again, what WW(wells woman) hasn't? There were the usual and unusual ups and downs through out my time there. And when I graduated I was ready to be done with college. I was ready to move on to something else, but what I didn't know. I knew that the people I wanted to stay in touch with I would. The rest I didn't care that much about. I would say up until last Friday there were about 15 WW that I kept in touch with. Some on a weekly basis, some if I was lucky I'd hear from them every year or so . But it didn't matter how often we talked, she was a person I could count on for whatever whenever. And it went both ways.
And then there was the text which turned into a phone call late last Friday night into early Saturday morning. One of the WW I knew was in an accident. I didn't know exactly how bad it was, just that she'd been in the hospital in Syracuse since mid morning. As soon as I hung up, I immediately let others who I knew know. There were a number of texts back along the lines of "Who is this?". But that's what you get when you don't keep in close contact with some people that often. But each and everyone of them reacted the same way, by keeping Ariel in their thoughts.
Ariel was not one of the people I kept in contact with. Not that I didn't like her, more that she and I never really hung out on campus. She had a different set of friends than I did. But we did play soccer together for two of the years I was at WC. And thanks to facebook I had a vague idea of what she had been doing since graduation and where she was living.
When the call came Saturday afternoon that the decision had been made to not resuscitate her my heart went out to her family who had flown in from various places to be with her and her partner. As soon as I could, I let other WW know. When I heard that there was going to be a memorial in Aurora on last Monday night, I seriously considered going back for it. But I couldn't justify the 12 hour round trip drive with everything going on at work. Since there was going to be another memorial in NYC I decided that was where I was going to spend my Monday night. Despite transportation issues getting there, I did make it at least to the important part of any WC function, the drink(s) after.
One of the things I have come to realize in light of all of this is what it means to be a WW and be part of the sisterhood. It's the fact that there were 500 people in Phipps that night and about another 20 or so in NYC. As T has said, where else could this sort of thing occurred and had such a response as quickly? We are a unique bunch of people, mostly women, who have a strong bond.
Here's to sister Wells...
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theithacajournal/obituary.aspx?n=ariel-grace-lawson&pid=138446933 Obituary
http://wellscollege.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/remembering-ariel/ WC's post
http://vimeo.com/8744884 The WC Memorial on campus
