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Amelia Bamsey (Class of 2026) is pursing a major in International Economics and Finance and minor in English.
I wrote this last semester as part of an assignment for Dr. Samuel's Archaeology of Settlements and Landscapes class. As an exercise in exploring how attachment shapes a landscape, Dr. Samuels had us take a walk across campus and make note of the places we encountered that had some metaphysical significance to us. I wrote this about climbing O'Boyle hill the spring of my freshman year to Transformative Texts I with Dr. Murton where I met some of my now closest friends.
Today, there is a group of five little boys shrieking as they roll down the O’Boyle hill, but I’ll always think of a different group when I traverse across it. I remember making this trek with my roommate, Emma; we took our first (THE first) Cornerstone Transformative Texts class together in O’Boyle. She knew a few people from her Cornerstone LC, but I had enrolled in the program after first semester and had no idea what to expect. Little did I know that as the semester went on I would rediscover my love for English literature and meet some of my best friends in that class.
Though I started the semester trekking up this hill with one person, as spring of 2023 stretched on, I’d find myself traipsing back down the hill with my then-class-now-closest friends. I still remember the giddy feeling of being a freshman making new friends. We would chat about the class material or conversation and slowly bond over time. As weeks went on, we'd make it down to Flather Hill and spontaneously decide to go to St. Vinny's for 5:10 mass or Garv for dinner to continue the conversation. As it got warmer and the tree outside O'Boyle sprouted leaves again, Miller and Chris invited us to join their intramural kickball team for the tournament, and I knew we weren't all just class friends anymore.
"Though I started the semester trekking up this hill with one person, as spring of 2023 stretched on, I’d find myself traipsing back down the hill with my then-class-now-closest friends."
"Though I started the semester trekking up this hill with one person, as spring of 2023 stretched on, I’d find myself traipsing back down the hill with my then-class-now-closest friends."
Now, the grass is dry, smelling more like straw, and it’s getting cold—a sharp contrast to the ripe scent of mud we strolled along during spring of 2023 as the snow melted and temperatures rose gradually. I look up through the baring branches toward the stone, pillared grand balcony attached to our classroom directly above the entrance to O'Boyle. We’d step out onto it if the professor was late, if we got a break, or if the room was too hot, which became a more common occurrence as we edged toward May. The sun is flooding it now with yellow-white warmth. It looks inviting, but I know it wouldn’t feel the same to look out over campus without my friends.
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