Dominican College of San Rafael - Firebrand Yearbook (San Rafael, CA)

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all filed to our rooms with the minimum of noise-save only the 4'under-the-breath comments such as: this is sure going to be one ........ of a year, 44. . . slave driver . . . , I can't wait to get out of here. As the days and early weeks passed we were either getting numb to the place or we were 'Ladjustingv-I really don,t know which it was. But things began looking a little brighter. Bertrand wasn't the Hilton, but it wasn't quite the dump it was August 29 either. Personalities began taking shape. Shels the one who gets all the phone calls. She's a debutante. She's the one who's nuts about campfire girls. She's the one thatis always in trouble. Shels always got a date. She never has a date, etc., etc. Conversa- tions began getting a little broader than HI hate it here, don't you? As the weeks turned to months, we learned a lot about getting along with all different kinds of person- alities. Sister Jeannette was taking on a different light too. Before we knew it, We were leaving for Thanksgiving, and then came finals and Christmas. Joan Walsh Anglund says that Christmas is a blessed time . . . of love. I think that we could feel the truth in this statement at Bertrand during Christmas time. We felt close then. Close in lots of ways. Remember that night we sat in the lounge making Bertrand a home-adding the spirit of a Christmas tree. That ghastly looking tree helped make Christmas a blessed time at Bertrand-a blessed time of love. If anyone had told us on August 29 that we would be excited about returning to Bertrand after Christmas va- cation, we would have said they were nuts! But nuts or I76

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BERTRAND 1965--A HAPPY MEMORY fwrizten for Bertrandfs goodbye partyf, May 19662 Bertrand was a new beginning. ln a way it was a lonely beginning. The loneliness was felt through 47 girls crowd- ed in a room. It was felt above the screaming, through the smoke. It was felt because this wasn't what we expected- this simply wasn't college, or so we thought on August 30. Why do the lights have to be out at l0:30? Why no ca- pris? Study-from 7:30-9:30? What, or should we say, who, was the immovable force who prevented any ex- ceptions? Sister Marie Jeannette, O.P. ran Bertrand Hall, the place we could not quite accept then. Why no walls, Sister? Aren't we paying just as much as the Meadow- lands girls, or even the Pennafort girls, for that matter? In this early stage we really thought walls would make a difference--walls were a part of the college hoarding we had heard about. Schedules grasped tightly in hand, we passed the first few days almost alone--only accented by an occasional forced, overly polite uhello, where are you from? It was so obvious that the lounge was a camouflaged class- room. ln this lounge there didn't seem to be the strained uhi, where-are-you-from atteniptsg it was more or less the hi, where-are-you-going-next-year? idea. lied pen in hand, we marked and poured over our trusty little handbooks at that first housemeeting under the direction of Sister Jeannette. After listening intently to Sister laying down the law for a hall hour, we left the lounge scared to death. I think this was the night we I75

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not nuts-we missed Bertrand. Oh there were lots of rea- sons we thought we wanted to come back, but we really didn't know how much this last semester would mean to us. Spirit seemed to grow deeper. We were a little more content to stay here on weekends! ltls funny, but without even knowing it, we had made Bertrand a real home. Saying good-bye is. going to be hard. lt's like a family splitting up: even though we'll be living together falmost all of us anywayj , we are leaving the old sod, so to speak, where we began a new life. We're leaving behind the one a.m. picnics in the bookstore, the water fights in the pink bathroomg we're leaving behind the sun-porch that was completed in mid-winter, the hot plate, and the two out- of-order T.V.'s. But I think most of all WC,1'C leaving be- hind that certain someone who the Holy Spirit guided to the oddest places at the oddest times. We'll miss her be- cause she cared. It will be sad on Friday because we won't hear UGOOD NIGHT, LADIES, but 1'ather uGoodbye. SUZANNE STELLA '69 fErlitor's note: Bertrand was abeginning, and leaving it was the end of one phase at Dominican. The story was reprinted because the feelings expressed are still valid. Now we are leaving a whole school - friends, teachers, buildings. We are leaving a way of life and it is hard to believe that we will not return in three months. Be- cause somehow, a place gets to you, often in spite of yourself, just as Bertrand got to 47 girls in our fresh- man year. Saying goodbye is going to be hard. j I77