2014 Edmund Jones Essay

My Life in Swarthmore

By Marissa Lee

HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE

When I was younger, I lightly dismissed the proverb “It takes a while village to raise a child.” My parents and family had raised me, and I couldn’t quite see how anyone else had a major impact on the person I was. But now, looking back on the first 18 years of my life, I realize how true the proverb really is.

My life in Swarthmore has been very special. While my family lived for several years in California, I was born and raised in Swarthmore. The people, the places, and the sense of community are unlike anywhere else I have ever been. Swarthmore has taught me many valuable lessons and ways of life. To start, it has provided me the opportunity to receive a great education, learning about everything from how to evaluate triple integrals to where and when to use a semicolon. The academic education I received in Swarthmore provided a strong foundation for all of my academic experiences.

More importantly, living in Swarthmore and around Swarthmoreans has taught me about community, passion, and friendship. Firstly, and perhaps most obviously, Swarthmore has taught me the value of community. Never, in a city, would I be able to find the strong sense of community found in Swarthmore. As I walk our dog, neighbors wave hello or stop to chat with me. As I make a quick stop at the Co-op, I see and talk to the parents of friends and peers. As I walk around at the July 4th Parade, I catch up with past teachers. No matter where I go in our community, it is impossible to pass through without having a nice, meaningful conversation with another community member. Everyone is generous with his or her time, always willing to lend a helping hand or a word of encouragement.

Next, Swarthmore has taught me the value of passion and the endless possibilities that arise from passion. Whether it’s a passion for playing soccer, going on daily nature hikes, or playing the tuba, everyone in Swarthmore has a passion that he or she is eager to share with others. Not only does this make for great conversation, but the ever-present passion in the people around me has inspired me to find the things in life that bring out the passion in me — things like music, service, science and math.

Muhammad Ali is quoted as saying, “Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” Most importantly in my Swarthmore experience, I have learned the incredible value of friendship. When we returned to Swarthmore for kindergarten, after living in California for two years, I didn’t know anyone, apart from our old neighbors, none of which had children my age. But sure enough, within the first month of our move, I had befriended a handful of children in the area, and by 4th grade, I had made my best friend that I’ve had for the past eight years. This friend and the many others that I’ve made in Swarthmore have taught me everything about friendship — about support, even when one of us doesn’t agree with the other, about reliability, about trust, about respect.

Everything that I have learned from my life thus far in Swarthmore has had a huge impact on my decisions and actions, and has shaped the values I hold today. I will certainly take the lessons I learned with me as I enter into a whole new world of college, with new communities, new interests, and new friendships.