Meredith College - Oak Leaves Yearbook (Raleigh, NC)

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?|t£torp of tfje Senior Clas ■WN the Spring of 1903 we left the prep, schools, grasping our diplomas and ll feeling very conscious of the laurels newly won, that rested lightly on our brows. In the fall of that same year we matriculated at the Baptist Uni- versity for Women. Before coming, we were sure that we would be the whole show, but only a few hours were needed to see how mistaken we were. Our laurels were brushed aside by careless hands, and trodden upon by Faculty feet. During that dreadful first week, when our trunks had been sent to A. and M. and le ft all night, and when nobody cared whether we lived or died, the question most frequent on our lips was, Is this your first year here ? No one ever asked us that ; it was plain that we had been away from home but a short while. How we longed for the time when we should be able to reply to next year ' s newish, No, I was here last year. That first year passed, quickly it seems now in retrospect, slowly it seemed then in actual experience. The awful rush tendered us by the Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors, Irregulars and Specials, was forgotten in the glad thought that Commencement was over, the Seniors had their diplomas, — and we were Sophs. Now we could answer the new girls as condescendingly as we pleased, and for a few days our happiness was complete. Surely this second year would be all pleasure, and compensation for the hardships of the first. Only for a little while did we labor under this delusion, and then work began. Work — that is the word that essentially applies to the Sophomore year. For were we not initiated into the inner mysteries of French and Biology that year? And did we not have to sit up into the wee sma ' hours conning that English for Miss Harris ? and get up long before the rising bell to translate Livy and horace, or work out those endless formulae in the last of Wells ' College Algebra? It was with a sigh of relief that, examinations having been passed, and the daisy chain success- fully made and carried, we turned our faces homeward for the summer. The Junior year passed with its full share of toil, intermingled with much pleasure. Some who had been numbered with us the first two years, returned no more, but others came to take their places, whom we gladly welcomed as we mourned for the absent ones. Now we have come to the end of our last year, the year to which we had looked forward throughout our course as being all joy. But though much happi-

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LOUISE ELIZABETH WYATT, Phi., Raleigh, N. C. The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light. LUCILE DEVEREAUX WITHERS, Phi., Chablotte, N. C. Age can not wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.

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ness has fallen to our lot, there is sadness, too. Some have left, and no others come in their stead. Then, when we reflect on the years we ' ve been together, bound by the closest ties, sharing our joys and sorrows, there comes over us a shadow, as we think that next autumn, instead of coming back here to be greeted by the faces of class-mates, we must begin our journey in widely separated paths. Some will enter the school-room again, but to direct, not to be directed. Some will rest a year or so at home ; and some, perhaps, will go into homes of their own to put into practice there all the wise theories they ' ve gathered at college. As we look back on the past year, we see much to gratify us — Physics is over, and Senior Physiology. Any one of us now can give any natural law called for ; or name and locate every bone, muscle, and blood vessel in our bodies. The practice teaching is done. No more will we have to teach with a superior being in the form of our own teacher looking on. Not only has all this been accomplished, but we point with pride to the college magazine. The first volume of Oak Leaves appeared the year we first came to college, and now, departing, we leave the Acorn. The class of ' 07 will always claim that as its own. Having taken this backward glance, we are now ready for the future; ready for the real commencement of our lives, that will be richer and fuller for having been together four years within these walls. As we go forth, each her own way, let us, in the strength of our youth, ever be mindful of our motto, In life ' s morning, march ! Historian.