Daughters' Reunion

Last night found me back in a dorm room; it's like I never left. I even felt a little bit the way I felt then: as if everyone else in the place was out having crazy weekend fun and I was stuck in my room, fantasizing about Peanut Butter Cups and trying to get my bangs to lie down flat.No really it's not like that at all. Really I’m sort of crashing my girls' 10th reunion and doing a little babysitting while they go out on the town. This is at Smith, which has been a women's college since its founding in 1875, just a couple of years before I was a student here ha ha.When I was here we thought we couldn't  get through the weekend unless there was a scheduled “mixer” to bring in guys from the guys’ schools. (Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams: all the schools you could get to in a reasonable amount of time were for men only.) When I first arrived on campus as a freshman I remember being surprised by the way some of the upperclassmen worked to get invited for the weekend to one of those ‘guy’ schools,  there to witness all the foolish behaviors associated with alcohol and male hormones. It's sad the way we all seemed to be full of such yearning back then. The students here nowadays  aren’t like that at all. When my two girls  were here at Smith and I would come visit them I couldn’t believe how simultaneously focused AND jaunty the students all were. They were studying their brains out AND they were chalking saucy sentiments on the footpaths; aspiring highly like we did but also having such fun doing it. And, as far as I can tell it's been years since anyone was  dying to get away on the weekends. Having been back on campus a lot when these two were here from '97 to '01 I can tell you that their class seemed utterly happy and fulfilled. And having come back here this weekend I can tell you they sure still seem that way. Take a look at the faces of these three, who let me take their picture last night. It just makes me thank God for the steady progress of the Women’s Movement; and thank God too for women’s education wherever in the world it's going forward.