I met Anna K. when I was a customs person in Rockefeller. She lived on the hall below mine and quickly became really good friends with a lot of my frosh, and then with me. I love to embroider, so Anna asked me once if I would embroider the word “FEMINIST” on to her favorite pair of underwear. Sometime before Hell Week, I got home from class and was hanging out in Rock when Anna strolled upstairs wearing a trench coat. She said, “I have a question!” and threw her trench coat open to reveal her underwear, which she was wearing Superman-style over a pair of tights and had embroidered with “WILL YOU BE MY HELLER?”. Obviously I said yes and if you walk by my door in Brecon you will see said hot pink embroidered underwear pinned to my corkboard. Anna and I sat down together for a little interview on Wednesday over some delicious Haffner foods.
Posing with a copy of the publication we both write for.
Ingrid A: How did you come to be a Bryn Mawr student?
Anna K: I really didn’t want to go to Bryn Mawr at first. It was the first school I visited and I complained the whole drive about how I didn’t want to go to a “girl’s school” but once we got there, my mom insisted that I take the tour. The tour guide was like, “This is the lantern we’ll give you! Look at this beautiful room in Merion where you get to live! Here are the cloisters!” and nothing quite lived up to it after that.
IA: What is something you love about Bryn Mawr?
AK: It’s hard to pick one thing… I really like teas. I like that we have hall gatherings, dorm gatherings, and customs group gatherings. They’re a nice thing to come home to.
IA: What is something you would change about Bryn Mawr?
AK: Sometimes the community is so tight and so supportive that it doesn’t teach us how to be part of the real world—college is supposed to be a transition to the real world, sometimes I’m worried that Bryn Mawr isn’t doing that.
IA: Is there anything you’ve learned at Bryn Mawr that you didn’t expect to learn?
AK: All I can think of is that there’s a lot more chemistry than I thought there was.
IA: Chemistry as in the academic subject, not a spark of attraction?
AK: Yes.
IA: How else is Bryn Mawr, or college in general, different from your expectations?
AK: It’s a lot more intense. The hard parts are harder but the good parts are even better. Everything is five times more extreme than it was back home.
IA: What is your favorite thing you had to do during Hell Week?
AK: I don’t think it was a particular thing so much as the fact that many of my classes were kind of on hold and I got to spend a lot of time with you and Chloe*. I enjoyed the time in between my tasks when they were recognized. Being anassed for the first time was really cool.
*Anna’s other heller
IA: I feel like frosh are told over and over again how great Hell Week will be. How was that for you?
AK: I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as people said I would, but I definitely did. It was such a great, special opportunity.
IA: Tell me about how it felt to be in a position where you had to choose a Heller/Hellers?
AK: I felt very indecisive mostly because I ended up overthinking it…. I definitely regret not asking both of my Hellers sooner.
IA: How does that compare to being in a more passive position, waiting to see if someone wants you to hell them?
AK: It’s really stressful. Hell Week and traditions are some of the reasons why I came to Bryn Mawr so not being a Heller would feel like I was missing out a lot.
IA: Is it weird not to hear people cooing over your future Hell Week experiences when you tell them your class year, as I’m sure they did when you were a frosh? How is that?
AK: It’s definitely weird, but it’s also fun to be excited for the frosh. It’s been really cool to go through traditions from a new perspective.
Real talk: There are at least 3 people in this photo. We just like to cuddle, ok?