I recently learned that Hampshire College was closing its doors for good, and I felt an immediate sense of deep sadness followed by grief, a grief that felt both familiar and new, a grief that I am still carrying and processing.

For those of you who do not know what Hampshire College is, it is a small liberal arts college in Amherst Massachusetts. It is a college that prided itself in not providing grades and instead constructive feedback. It emphasised the importance of self-reflection, critical thinking, social action, and artistic expression. 

It is also my alma mater, one of the first spaces I felt completely safe, and where I met my husband. A space where birds chirp, mountains hold you as your eyes gaze at the horizon, and cider donuts are but a walk away.

It is where I made so many dances, challenged so many professors, began to recognize who I was and where I had come from, and for the first time, acknowledged I needed some help. 

With all the loss surrounding us — loss of how society is supposed to be, loss of safety or security, loss of predictability, loss of critical thinking, loss of future vision, loss of hope — Hampshire stood in my memory as a place that represented many of the antidotes to these losses. Hampshire is not a perfect place, and I was never aligned with everything it represented, but its ideals of investigation, representation, expression, diversity, and freedom are the ideals that I hold so dear and strive to live by on the daily. 

Hampshire College is closing its doors for good.
Hampshire College is closing.
Hampshire College
Hampshire,

I will miss you, and I, as I presume every Hampshire graduate before and after me will have to do, will strive to keep your memory alive, for it was a blessing. 

~Non Satis Scire~