Mount Holyoke College - Llamarada Yearbook (South Hadley, MA)

Page 9 text:

w c began this year working with a theme. Nothing unique or dramatic; simply a phrase flexible enough to allow divergence and crea- tivity and yet. stable enough to centrally struc- ture our efforts. The individual in the group perfectly fulfilled our broad demands: it was adopted and we then stalked the Mount Holyoke campus preoccupied by the shifting focus provided by this thematic formulation. The more paths, stairs, and corridors we walked gathering material for this book, the more complete our vision of the flickering phases each student passes through here became. What we witnessed and simulta- neously participated in. was a continuing documentary with a changing tone and mood. People assumed roles we never imagined they would or could portray convincingly and with real involvement. The transformation from if P then Q logician to spirited violinist, from active poet to patient tutor, from medieval scholar to social chair- man. from exacting chemist to political cam- paigner, from anyone with one interest to someone with multiple interests; eased across the camera without the slightest strain on our credulity. This pattern repeated itself across the campus with the same lulling regularity. Perhaps that is one reason we overlook its pulsating presence. The realization that we were studying the various and multiple roles of each student on this campus, increased our awareness of both the achievements already here, and the thundering potential yet to be developed. The record of the changing roles of each student is not merely what we have seen, but more, a reflection of what each person has seen during similar excursions. Brick silhouettes looming against an inflamed sky. plush falling snow and cracking ice. indented mud hollows and noisy pink gravel, textured trees and squirrels and dogs and always—people. Individuals relating each to each by sharing the same roles or parts of roles. The performances are sym- bolic. We are all involved from rehearsal to final curtain call. If the production is a failure, we all share the blame collectively: if a suc- cess. collectively we inhale the triumph and savour the elation. We will always be members of a group, whether it is as large as the American society or as small as the Mount Holyoke community, for this is both a necessity and a condition of humanity. Often, and with increasing fre- quency. our membership is pre-determined by circumstances. Here, at this time, it has been determined by choice. We have to some extent separated ourselves from the rest of the world, but similar urgencies and personal needs intrude here. We question the effectiveness of the individual effort—in moments of despair we shrug aside the individuals and generalize our dissatisfaction in a cry of homogeneity. Yet. under a calm and full light, this flawed reasoning is exposed, and this excuse vanishes replaced by the understanding that the single person, the single action and reaction is the ultimate source of relevance.