Amani, ‘12

I have to say that Proclamation Night met and exceeded my expectations.  Well first, what exactly is Proclamation Night?

Here at Richmond, we have many traditions among the student body, and one of the greatest traditions of Westhampton College (the women’s college within UR) is Proclamation Night.  This ceremony is for first-year and fourth-year women only and is held in the chapel; freshmen sit on the left side of the chapel and seniors sit on the right.  All of the first-year students traditionally wear white dresses (although they encourage you to wear whatever you’d like to express yourself), and all of the seniors are garbed in their graduation gowns.  In addition to having a speaker, the ceremony consists of award presentations to a couple of distinguished seniors, the writing (by freshmen) and the reading (by seniors) of letters to themselves, and a candlelit “rites of passage” into Westhampton College (unanimously stating the pledge of honor). 
 

Now, for my experience…

The night started early because although Proclamation Night did not start until 7 p.m., the freshmen women and senior women had to take class photos.  So at 5:15, all of the first-years, decked out in white (for the most part) reported to the Westhampton Green where the photographer arranged us by height and took a series of eight pictures.  One would think that this would not take long, but we did not finish taking our pictures until a little after 6.  They then told us that dinner would be served at D-Hall from 6-7 and that afterward we should report to the chapel so that the program could begin promptly at 7 p.m.

Well, when a couple of my friends and I realized how much chaos it would be to eat dinner at D-Hall with the other 300 or so first-year girls, we decided to grab something to eat from off campus.  We quickly returned to our dorms and enjoyed our Burger King kid’s meals and Hershey pies , and then we were off to the chapel.

We—Sarah, Tiffany, and I—thought we had a pretty good spot in line for the chapel, but when we got inside, we realized that a lot of the freshmen were already seated, so we had to sit towards the back.  Maybe this wouldn’t have been so bad if the speaker had been just anybody, but the former Westhampton woman who was chosen to speak was Sarah’s sister, Kim!  We weren’t able to move closer to the front, and I had unfortunately left my glasses in my room (my distance vision isn’t great at all), so I watched a large portion of Kim’s speech on my zoomed-in digital camera, hehe. 

After the speaker and award presentations, the senior women received the letters that they had written to themselves in their first year, and the freshmen women began writing our letters.  While writing, a couple of bold seniors—I say bold because they had no clue what they had written—chose to read their letters over the microphone.  From friends to food, boys to schoolwork (and let’s not forget the infamous apartment parties), these girls had written it all.  Let’s just say that it was very interesting, especially because the dean was sitting right on stage during these readings.  (I don’t think she held anything that they said against them, lol.)

So, as I sat and contemplated what to write, I took into consideration everything that had already been presented.  I can’t remember exactly everything that I wrote, but I know that I did include my thoughts on adjusting to college life, my expectations for myself in four years (which included a 3.7 GPA…we’ll see about that ), and mention of my newfound best friend, Sarah.  Additionally, Kim mentioned in her speech that she had left herself a dollar in her letter, so I enclosed $2.12 because I will be graduating in 2012.  Yeah, it’s a little corny, but so what?  I’m sure that $2.12 will come in handy in four years as I prepare to take on the financial responsibility of being an adult.  (Maybe it’ll get me a drop of gas or something, haha.)

After we turned in our sealed envelopes, we lit candles and read our Westhampton Pledge of Honor, and then we were free to leave and enjoy cake. 

    Me……………………….Sarah………………………Tiffany 
Cake!!!

I can say that I did enjoy the ceremony; I am honored to be a part of such a wonderful and empowering college and an even greater university.

Amani
My roommate–Aayla–and I 
The lovely ladies of A-base (my hall) after the ceremony…
(Couldn’t wait to get out of that stuff and put on some sweats to go study)