Caitlin Joseph '25

My journey to Bryn Mawr, just like my journey throughout it, has been about opening myself up to the unknown, and letting my heart guide me to where I need to be. 

It was a cold November day when my parents dragged me to the doors of the Bryn Mawr Admissions Building. The warm lighting and smiles of people inside did nothing to thaw my heart. The fact was, I didn’t want to go to a women's college and Bryn Mawr was a detour on our way to a different college.  

As I sat, waiting for the tour, something told me to look up and to my delight I saw Roxane Gay, staring down at me from the confines of a poster. This amazing author, whose book Hungry I had devoured a month earlier, had spoken here just a week before my visit. My disposition grew sunnier still with the knowing smile of my tour guide, confident in her abilities to show off the best of campus despite the lack of students out and about given the weather. I’ll never forget when we walked by New Dorm Dining Hall where the wall of windows provided a peek into this magical land, tinted orange in contrast to our frosty existence. There were people being loud, boisterous and so annoyingly happy, like they were at my high school which I found terribly performative. But the Bryn Mawr students threw no shaded glances at those alone, doing assignments or watching TV. People could be separate but at peace within the space. I saw a community that I had only dreamed of, with none of the social anxieties of high school, and I wanted to be part of it. I didn’t know how badly until I cried when I received my acceptance letter over half a year later.  

With my change in academic environment, I was determined to be different too – more outgoing despite my insecurities. All the awkward moments talking to classmates I didn’t know well and trying to make eye contact while walking across campus to strike up a conversation, I did all of that at Bryn Mawr. The amazing thing was, the more I talked to people my first year, the more I realized they were nervous and awkward like me!  

The secret at Bryn Mawr is that the students aren’t devoid of worry. We all get lost in our heads, overthink our interactions, and feel lonely sometimes. But by taking the leap to open up to people, I learned that they would do the same with me. Slowly, those struggles, the ones that held me back during adolescence, diminished in power.  

It is no surprise then, that my most cherished memories here revolve around community. Outside of our four major traditions – Parade Night, Lantern Night, Welcome the First Years Week, and May Day – we have smaller ones, including "Bryn Family" and "Bryn Marriage" which are ways of forging particularly strong friendships within our community. Pursuing a passing interest of mine, I took Japanese my first year and that is where I met my "Bryn Husband."  

Japanese study, offered through the Bi-Co, was the most fun I have ever had learning a language. The energy of teachers, discussion-based lessons, and rigorous exercises quickly led to great strides in my proficiency. In fact, I have found that most courses here are based on our understanding of reading assignments which we are able to discuss back and forth in class, improving our comfort and ability to articulate an argument. Now, it is rewarding to watch the younger students, especially first years, grow and flourish from the start of the semester to the end, from the beginning of the year to the end. Even in lecture-based classes, the breadth of knowledge our professors provide – including niche, interesting, and funny tidbits, as well as their attention to engagement – makes those classes fascinating as well.  

You may have noticed the inclusive language I have been using. Depending on a number of factors, your experience using such language before coming to Bryn Mawr may vary. Upon coming here, I realized Bryn Mawr was not like the predominantly white institutions I have attended in the past, in part because of this inclusiveness. We are a women’s college, with a wide range of students in the LGBTQ+ community. People here tend to understand what it is like for your identity to be misrepresented or defiled for partisan purposes, that it is necessary to cherish yourself regardless. In addition, meeting students from all over the world has helped me broaden my thought processes and research to be more global. Understanding international relations and not using that as a basis for understanding a people as homogenous is a way of thinking so common here that we can take it for granted. Attending events hosted by our Enid Cook '31 Center—our Black Cultural Center and residence hall supporting and celebrating the Black and Latinx student community and those who wish to support them—as well as those of various affinity groups on campus has also provided me with a sense of comfort.

  Being a racial minority in a predominantly white institution can be challenging at times. However, there is a sense of comradery and ease I feel here. Even if I were more open and confident at my high school, I would not believe I would have been embraced by my community in the same way as I have been here at Bryn Mawr. After two years being fostered in such an environment, I felt confident enough to study abroad in Tokyo. Were it not for the social strides I made thanks to my community at Bryn Mawr, I would not have felt strong enough to spend a semester in a different country. Were it not for our partnership with Haverford, I would not have had the language skills necessary to thrive in that environment. Making new friends, solo trips, trying new foods and cultural experiences, it was my foundation as a Bryn Mawr student that prepared me for that.  

An introvert, who likes her comfort zone, and is snuggled in patterns – that’s who I thought I was when I came here. I was determined to see if how I identified would change if I opened myself to new experiences and people. If I took the socially awkward route and reached out to new people, what would come after embarrassment? At Bryn Mawr, the answer is friends you can laugh with about stupid stuff, and a community that won’t look at you twice if you walk into the cafeteria in pajamas. As I come to the end of my senior year, behind the fear of the job market and grad school programs, I’m swaddled in confidence that my heart will lead me in the right direction and I’ll work hard to end up where I want to be.  

More than academic confidence, of which I have developed plenty from papers and class discussions, I’m leaving with social and self-confidence. I’m not stuck as an introvert or an extrovert, I am open to expressing and being how I feel in the moment, which makes me annoyingly happy. 

Caitlin Joseph '25  is majoring in International Studies and minoring in Japanese. Around campus, Caitlin is a tour guide and has studied abroad in Japan.