I came to Vassar for two reasons: because it looks like Hogwarts, and I like people who wear crazy clothes.
My family drove under the Taylor Hall archway, I saw some people wearing clown pants and that was all it took for me to declare: “This is where I am going.” It’s as simple as that.
Of course, four years later, Vassar has become so much more to me than pretty buildings and eccentric outfits. Things that are a given here—the extracurriculars, studying abroad, the professors—all seemed very far off to my high school self. Four years ago, I would’ve never (never!) imagined that my college experience would be so strange and fulfilling as it has been. A prime example of this—I’m not entirely sure how I ended up being the Sports Editor of The Miscellany News.
Despite being raised in a family of stellar athletes and hard core Yankees fans, I didn’t take to sports for the longest time. When I was young I would rather spend the day drawing pictures than go anywhere near a sport. I used to go to my sister’s soccer games to look for four leaf clovers on the sidelines, and the absolute best part of my first Yankees game was the Italian ice. My favorite thing in the world was a pad of paper and markers. I was 10 years old when I finally even agreed to try field hockey, and I somehow managed to break a mirror in the process.
A lot of time has passed since then, and I still frequent art museums over sports games—but the important part is that I truly love at least one sport.
Even though I sometimes watch games and wonder “What ARE sports?” and why people play them, I’ve never once questioned this while I was on the field myself—it’s fun to compete, and it’s fun to push your limits. It’s been even more fun to learn about the type of person I’ve become over these 12 years of playing field hockey: I know I’m not a quitter because I’ve stuck with it so long (and not every second has been fun, believe me), I know how to take criticism, I know I’m patient because I’ve never once yelled at a teammate. I do my best work under pressure.
When I learned that The Misc was looking for a Sports Editor I couldn’t say no. I owe a lot to field hockey.
I’m glad I did it. Working on The Misc has been an interesting experience. I can now tell you what campus looks like at 4 a.m. on a Wednesday morning after spending the night awake, and I can describe how relieving it is to have a reporter who is always on point. I also have a lot of nightmarish stories about articles falling through, InDesign in general and that one time we spelled “vollyball” wrong in a headline…but most importantly, I have a group of people that I’ll always be able to laugh with about these things.
At that moment when my family was driving through campus for the first time, I would have never believed anyone who told me that editing the sports section of the newspaper would be a large part of my college life.
I also really would not have expected that I would major in Art History, be part of the amazing field hockey team here, study abroad in St Andrews, Scotland or meet some of the most crazily interesting people on the planet (you know who you are).
But that’s the thing about my time here at Vassar: it was zany and exciting and not at all what I expected.
It was perfect because of that, and I sincerely hope it is a sign of an equally zany and exciting life to come.
—Tina Caso is an Art History major and the outgoing Sports Editor of The Miscellany News.