Family and Friends Weekend flooded campus with parents and old friends, merging students’ family lives with their school lives. Many less than eager students agreed to meet their friends’ parents, predicting that the interactions would be boring and long. Instead, many of these students received insights into their friend’s personalities that they never expected.
Sarah Leavy ’22 has been shocked since Friday evening when she met her roommate’s parents. After shaking hands with the frail Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, they offered her some dried prunes before sending their regrets about not being able to stay for her acapella concert that evening. As they left, worried about getting to their hotel before sunset, she had a moment of sheer realization.
“It was like, an epiphany,” Leavy recalled. “I finally understood why my roommate goes to sleep at 8 p.m. and eats nothing but soft foods. Now I’m glad that my parents couldn’t make it, because I would hate to see what my friends would be able to learn about me.”
Leavy’s experience has certainly inspired other Wellesley students. Rather than relying on astrological signs to explore their friend’s behaviors, a few students now plan on using the old-fashioned meeting the parents route. Ella Marquez ’21 fully anticipates that next year’s Family and Friends Weekend will help explain her roommate’s erratic behavior.
“I hope that meeting my roommate’s parents will help me get why she only wears pastels and constantly rants about ‘Gen Z culture,’” Marquez mused. “If I’m really lucky, they’ll offer some insight as to why she refuses to clean her side of the room and uses my desk as her personal coat rack.”