BEYOND THE CAMPUS
Symbols
of friendship
 They were once RAs busy planning icebreakers
for O’Donnell
Hall’s freshman women. In the experience of building
a hall community, they built one among themselves. The women
still practice the icebreaker skills learned then, in 1984,
when they reunite every fall and celebrate the year’s
passages. Each one brings something to these reunions, a symbol
carefully chosen to depict the year. With these symbols, they
break the ice and get comfortable again.
To the first Symbolfest — they’ve
given their reunion a name — they brought one symbol
to represent their lives and one to describe their friendship. “My
symbol of where I was in life was a glass half full,” recalls
Cathy Crowe Cauley, Arts ’86, H Sci ’97. “I
felt blessed by my education, relationships and family, but
I knew that there was more out there to fill my glass. My symbol
to represent our friendship was an old but well-preserved shoe.
Our friendship is ever present, always comfortable.”
Early
on, their symbols were about first jobs, first homes, first
babies. Later, their symbols represented a decision made
to go back to school, a divorce, day-to-day worries.
“My
symbol last year was my ‘fitness suit,’” says
Mary Peters-Wojnowiak, Dent Hy ’86, describing a swimsuit
made for women who feel they’ve moved beyond the bikini
class. “The fitness suit symbolized
my recognition that I am no longer 22. I need to recognize the next stage
of life (40+) and get comfortable with it.”
One year,
two women brought the same symbol — a magnifying glass — and
told how they were reexamining their lives. Ultimately, the symbols and the
fest they celebrate are about staying connected.
“We spent an enormous amount of time together as RAs,” says Teri
Wlezien Wood, Comm ’89. “It’s a remarkable moment for me when
we sit down together and reconnect. Afterward, it’s like New Year’s
Day,
like starting over and wondering what my symbol will be next year.”
Staying
connected through Symbolfest
- Teri Wlezien Wood, Comm ’89
- Lorie Czerwonka Walter,
Arts ’87
- Meg Watt McKenna, Arts ’86, Law ’92
- Cathy Crowe
Cauley, Arts ’86, H Sci ’97
- Tam Bacino Fitzgerald,
Dent Hy ’86
- Mary Peters-Wojnowiak, Dent Hy ’86
- Marti Wambach Fechner,
Sp ’87
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